Maintaining focused attention is a scarce mental resource. The body’s Basic Rest and Activity Cycle (BRAC), an elemental ultradian rhythm that regulates mental agility, requires breaks every 90 to 120 minutes to maintain peak performance. Stressed operators surrounded by multiple monitors and competing visual information will invariably see mental performance diminish.
High-stress environments can be designed to recharge focused attention and soothe frayed emotions using spatial polarity. By introducing a dramatic open sky view (real or virtual) that engages peripheral vision, which is tied to our sense of safety, simply looking up changes the chemistry of psycho-physiological restoration.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to explain the physiology’s waking rest-and-activity cycle (BRAC) and how the workplace can help or hinder our ability to rest and focus attention.
Participants will also be able to identify and discuss how environmental cues in the workplace act as somatic markers—subconscious triggers that can generate more stress or enhance wellbeing.
At the end of the session, attendees will also understand how architectural features that generate a change of scale to a panoramic view of nature (real or virtual) engage our right hemisphere and engage the autonomic nervous system, thereby relaxing occupants and boosting mental acuity.
.jpg "David A. Navarrete, MSc, MBA, EDRA CORE photo")