ENVIRONMENT

Knez, ANDOF
Kers / EFFECTS BEHAVIOR / November
LIGHTING, GENDER, 2000
AND AGE
EFFECTS OF INDOOR LIGHTING,
GENDER, AND AGE ON MOOD AND
COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE

IGOR KNEZ is an associate professor of psychology at University of Gävle, Sweden.

His research interests include environmental, cognitive, and emotional psychology.

CHRISTINA KERS conducted the experiment in partial fulfillment of requirements

for a B.S. at Uppsala University, Department of Psychology, under the guidance of the
first author.

ABSTRACT: The impact of indoor lighting, gender, and age on mood and cognitive
performance was examined in a between-subject experiment. It was hypothesized
that indoor lighting is an affective source that may convey emotional meanings differ-
entiated by gender, age, or both. A two-way interaction between type of lamp and age
on negative mood showed that younger adults (about 23 years old) best preserved a
negative mood in the “warm” (more reddish) white lighting while working with a bat-
tery of cognitive tasks for 90 minutes; for the older adults (about 65 years old), “cool”
(more bluish) white lighting accounted for the identical effect. The younger females
were shown to preserve the positive mood as well as the negative mood better than the
younger males, and a main effect of age in all cognitive tasks revealed the superiority
of younger to older adults in cognitive performance.

Studies investigating the effects of emotion on cognition have traditionally

used theoretically and/or experimentally defined affect elicitation procedures
such as films (Gross & Levenson, 1995), hypnosis (Bower, Monteiro, &
Gilligan, 1978), affect-toned statements (Fiedler, Pampe, & Scherf, 1986) or
newspaper reports (Johnson & Tversky, 1983), success or failure (Clark &
Waddell, 1983), and music (Teasdale & Spencer, 1984). Another line of

AUTHORS’ NOTE: Thanks are due to Ulf Dimberg, Tommy Gärling, Staffan Hygge,
and Hans Allan Löfberg for their comments on and critique of earlier versions of this
article. Please address correspondence to Igor Knez, University of Gävle, Center for
Built Environment, Laboratory of Applied Psychology, S-801 76 Gävle, Sweden.
E-mail may be sent to igor.knez@hig.se.
ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 32 No. 6, November 2000 817-831
© 2000 Sage Publications, Inc.

817
818 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / November 2000

research has inversely sought to map out the affect-eliciting sources in indoor
and outdoor environments, as well as the related cognitive and behavioral
effects of these settings. This framework has reported the effects of physical
factors on performance, social behavior, and affect (Bell, Fisher, Baum, &
Greene, 1990; Cohen, Evans, Stokols, & Krantz, 1986; Evans, 1982; Russell &
Snodgrass, 1987; Staples, 1996), the stress-reducing effects of natural envi-
ronments (Ulrich, Dimberg, & Driver, 1991; Ulrich, Simons, et al., 1991) and
the effects of natural views on attention (Tennessen & Cimprich, 1995). In
line with this, the present study focuses on a physical parameter of the indoor
environment, indoor lighting, that may alter affect in people.

LIGHTING RESEARCH

Most lighting research applies to visual perception (de Boer & Fischer,
1978; Boyce, 1981). In this area, the issues regarding optimal lighting condi-
tions for different visual tasks and the threshold values for visual discomfort
have been extensively explored (Boyce, 1973b; Rea, 1987; Vos, 1984).
Recently, however, two complementary research lines have addressed the
nonvisual effects of lighting. For instance, chronobiological research investi-
gates the effects of light related to the diurnal and annual rhythms of the hor-
mone secretion of melatonin and cortisol. The central notion is the biological
clock: a “bodily device” that regulates its synchronization mechanisms by the
variations of light-dark cycles, accompanied by the variations in melatonin
and cortisol (Brainard & Bernecker, 1995; Küller, 1987; R. D. Smith, 1986;
Wetterberg, 1990). Furthermore, a clinical attempt in treating seasonal affec-
tive disorders (SAD) with light therapy has been initiated, and several biolog-
ical models account for the phenomenon (for a recent review, see Dalgleish,
Rosen, & Marks, 1996).
Parallel nonvisual research focuses on the impact of light on psychologi-
cal mechanisms other than purely perceptual. At present, knowledge of psy-
chological effects of light is to a large extent based on preference findings.
For example, Flynn (1977) has indicated that people prefer more “warm”
(more reddish type of lamp) and dim (lower illuminance) than “cool” (more
bluish type of lamp) and bright (higher illuminance) white lighting. Butler
and Biner (1987) and Biner, Butler, Fischer, and Westergren (1989) have
shown that the function of an interior and the social relations of the occupants
involved in that setting account for people’s lighting preferences. Moreover,
Heerwagen (1990) showed that light(ing) sensitive people prefer brighter set-
tings than a normal group. Yet studies suggesting experimental evidence on
psychological effects of lighting are few (Baron, Rea, & Daniels, 1992;
 Knez, Kers / EFFECTS OF LIGHTING, GENDER, AND AGE 819

Gifford, 1988) and have, above all, failed to show direct effects of lighting on
mood (Baron et al., 1992; Boray, Gifford, & Rosenblood, 1989).

AN EXPERIMENTAL AGENDA

In line with the research evidence indicating effects of emotion on cogni-

tion and effects of environmental variables on emotion, Knez (1995a) out-
lined an experimental agenda on the behavioral effects of indoor lighting
based on two general hypotheses. First, the indoor lighting per se was hypoth-
esized to constitute an affect source, thus, a mood inducer, that could change
mood in participants. The mood elicited by the lighting was, secondly,
hypothesized to influence the ongoing cognitions. Moreover, Knez pro-
longed the lighting-exposure time to about two hours, and the mood measure
(PANAS; see MacLeod, Anderson, & Davies, 1994; Watson, Clark, &
Tellegen, 1988) was administrated in the beginning (Mood Block 1) and at
the end (Mood Block 2) of the experiment to allow a calculation of a delta-
mood score, used as a dependent variable in the statistical analysis.
According to the results obtained, the recommended (Commision
Internationale de l’Eclairage [CIE] 1986) indoor ceiling-mounted lighting
did alter positive and negative moods in participants (Knez, 1995a, 1997;
Knez & Enmarker, 1998) and, in addition, impaired or enhanced the cogni-
tive performance in memory and problem-solving tasks (Knez, 1995a). This
has, in consequence, brought forth some practical implications for the orga-
nization of indoor lighting in environments occupied by single employees
working with intellectual tasks (for discussion, see Knez, 1995b, 1997). In
this context, however, the following results and the accompanying theoretical
implications are of particular interest.
An interaction effect of type of lamp and illuminance on positive mood
showed that a cool white lighting (more bluish, about 4000 Kelvin) at low il-
luminance (300 lux) and a warm white lighting (more reddish, about 3000 K)
at high illuminance (1,500 lux) best preserved the positive mood in partici-
pants while they were working with a set of cognitive tasks for about 90 min-
utes. At the end of the experiment, the participants were asked to assess the
room light. A main effect of gender on several room light evaluation dimen-
sions revealed that women perceived the room light, in general, as less dim,
more intense, and more glaring than did men.
These findings indicate that the luminous milieu is an affective source that
females may appraise in a more accentuated manner than males. This type of
effect is generally in agreement with gender effects shown in studies on non-
verbal communication (Hall, 1978, 1984), emotional intensity (Fujita,
820 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / November 2000

Diener, & Sandvik, 1991), “slide-viewing” (Buck, 1984), facial reactions to

different emotional stimuli (Dimberg, 1990; Dimberg & Lundquist, 1990),
and sex and social stereotype research (Birnbaum & Croll, 1984; Stapley &
Haviland, 1989).
Moreover, two-way interactions between type of lamp and gender on pos-
itive and negative mood and cognitive performance showed that the type of
lamp that induced the least negative mood and preserved the positive mood
best in each gender also enhanced the cognitive performance in long-term
memory and problem-solving tasks.
These results suggest that women and men may differently appraise the
cool and the warm white lighting emotionally. In other words, the coloring
quality (type of lamp) of indoor lighting may convey different meanings
(Rapoport, 1982) and affective loadings (Buck, 1984) to different genders.
An experience of this type can be acquired within a specific and purposeful
social context: “Culture and context become particularly important when
emotions are viewed from a functionalist perspective (i.e., a view that emo-
tions are adaptive for both interpersonal and intrapersonal goals)” (Brody &
Hall, 1993, p. 447). When exposed to such a context-sensitive mood source, a
person’s culturally embedded conceptions must, then, be retrieved from the
memory. Buck (1984) suggested a “decoding rule” for this operation. He
writes: “Decoding rules may be defined as cultural rules or expectations
about the attention to, and interpretation of, emotion displays” (p. 20).

THE PRESENT STUDY

Putting the interpretations together leads to the view that indoor lighting is
a mood source that may convey different emotional meanings to women and
men. Given this view, a self-evident follow-up question is whether people’s
mood reactions to the luminous milieu vary across age groups as well. This is
most likely, because, as seen from a sociocultural perspective, persons simi-
lar in age can represent a sociosubcultural context that combines for that
group common and specific experiences as well as meanings. What attention
has been previously given to this demographic variable in related research?
The lighting research has addressed the age factor, mostly in relation to the
adult’s age-related impairments in the visual system (Boyce, 1973a; S. W.
Smith & Rea, 1978). The emotional research, on the other hand, has not
examined this factor in any depth (cf. Lewis & Haviland, 1993). Yet within
the realm of cognitive psychology, the area of cognitive gerontology has been
flourishing for the past two decades. The central issue in this research is to
map out the changes and deficiencies in people’s intellectual life as a function
of age (Davies, Taylor, & Dorn, 1992; Schooler & Schaie, 1987) and, in
 Knez, Kers / EFFECTS OF LIGHTING, GENDER, AND AGE 821

extension, develop programs for cognitive rehabilitation (Poon, Rubin, &

Wilson, 1989). This research has, for example, revealed age-related effects in
memory and attention (Craik & Simon, 1980), problem solving (Charness,
1981), and skilled performance (Molander & Bäckman, 1990).
Taken together, more research is clearly needed to examine the impact of
the age factor in behavioral lighting research as well as in emotional research.
In line with this conclusion, the main objective of the present study is to
expand the effects of indoor lighting on mood to include this demographic
variable. In particular, the task is to investigate the younger and older adult
females’ and males’ mood reactions to indoor lighting and their ongoing cog-
nitive performances in that type of physical environment.
Taking into account the results and the reasoning outlined previously, we
may generally predict an effect of indoor lighting on mood differentiated by
gender, age, or both, and an influence of age on cognitive performance.

METHOD

PARTICIPANTS

Eighty participants were paid 200 Swedish crowns (about $25) to partici-
pate in the study. They were randomly assigned to two lighting conditions
and matched for gender and age. The mean age of the women was 23.3 and
65.2 years; the mean age of the men was 23.9 and 65.5 years. The younger
adults were recruited from the local college and the employment exchange,
and the seniors were selected from the local pensioners’ clubs.

PHYSICAL STIMULI AND SETTING

The experiment was conducted in a neutrally colored and furnished

office-like room (3.9 m × 3.8 m × 2.5 m) with false windows (for details and a
picture of the setting, see Knez, 1995a). Noise (about 35 dBA) and air tem-
perature (21°C) were carefully controlled. Two type of lamps (color tempera-
tures) were used: (a) warm white lighting (3000 K; emits a more reddish
light; Osram, 36 W, L 36/22, 3000 K, with color rendering index 95) and (b)
cool white lighting (4000 K; emits a more bluish light; Osram, 36 W, L 36/32,
4000 K, with color rendering index 95) —both at 500 lux intensity
(illuminance).
The installations included six ceiling-mounted fluorescent luminaries
containing four lamps each, with a high-frequency control of the luminous
822 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / November 2000

flux. Changing the lamps varied the color temperature. The levels of color
temperature and illuminance were chosen because they are in accordance
with the international recommendations (CIE, 1986) and are commonly
installed in the office and school environments where intellectual work is at
hand.

DEPENDENT MEASURES

During the experiment, participants had to accomplish three types of

tasks: (a) a self-report, measuring the current affective state of positive and
negative mood; (b) a room light evaluation questionnaire, tapping the per-
ceived estimation of the room light; and (c) cognitive tasks, measuring
long-term recall and recognition, short-term recall, and problem solving.

Mood. The Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) developed

by Watson et al. (1988) was used as a mood measure (see also MacLeod et al.,
1994). This self-report measure includes two orthogonal dimensions of PA
and NA, comprising 10 affective adjectives each. In the beginning, and after
about 90 minutes of lighting-exposure, the participants were asked to rate
their current positive and negative mood by responding to the question “How
do you feel now?” using a 5-point adjective scale ranging from little or not at
all to very much.

Perceived room light estimation. The questionnaire was composed of

seven adjectives related to the key parameters of the indoor lighting: glaring,
dim, soft, bright, warm, intense, and cool. At the end of the experiment, the
participants were asked to evaluate the room light by rating each adjective on
a 5-point scale ranging from little, or not at all to very much in answer to the
question “How do you evaluate the room light?” (cf. Knez, 1995a).

Short-term recall. A free recall task comprised three word-lists of 16

words each, colored with neutral, negative, or positive hedonic tone. The task
was presented on a PC screen, and each word occurred separately with a dura-
tion of 1.5 seconds. The word lists were randomly presented across subjects.
After each word list, the participants were asked to write down on an answer
form in any order the words they could recall (cf. Knez, 1995a).

Long-term recall and recognition. At the outset of the experiment, the par-
ticipants read a 7-page compressed text about an ancient culture (Carter,
1982). At the end, after about 90 minutes, they were asked to answer 6
 Knez, Kers / EFFECTS OF LIGHTING, GENDER, AND AGE 823

general (recall) and 18 multiple choice (recognition) questions about this text
(cf. Hygge, 1993).

Problem solving. The embedded figure test (cf. A. P. Smith & Broadbent,
1980) was used as a problem-solving task (Hartley, 1989; Knez, 1995a). The
task included two types of abstract figures: a solution set (small figures A, B,
C, D, E) presented at the top of an answer sheet and a problem set presented
below (large complex figures where one of the solution figures was “hid-
den”). Matching one of the small figures with a large one solved the problem.
All together, there were 32 subproblems.

PROCEDURE

The participants were informed that the general aim of the experiment was
to investigate ongoing cognitions in memory and problem-solving tasks.
They were told that they would be given instructions and a time limit for each
particular task. The latter procedure was employed to implement an equal
time limit for the lighting exposure and the task performance across all sub-
jects and conditions. The time limits were, however, very liberal so as not to
induce any time-stress. The experiment lasted for about 120 minutes, and 2 to
4 participants participated at each session.
Related to a pilot study, the following time limits and order of tasks and
questionnaires were administrated across all subjects: (a) mood, block 1 (5
minutes); (b) text reading, encoding (35 minutes); (c) problem solving (35
minutes); (d) free recall (10 minutes); (e) mood, block 2 (5 minutes); (f) text
questions, long-term recall and recognition (20 minutes); (g) perceived room
light estimation (5 minutes).

RESULTS

MOOD

An analysis of variance was performed on a delta mood score, of Mood

Block 2 minus Mood Block 1, involving the basic design independent vari-
ables (2 type of lamps × 2 genders × 2 age groups). The delta score represents
a change in mood and the sign the direction of this change. A negative sign
indicates a decrease and a positive sign indicates an increase in the mood over
time.
824 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / November 2000

Figure 1: Mean Change in Positive Mood in Females and Males As a Function of

Age

Positive mood. As can be seen in Figure 1, a two-way interaction between

gender and age, F(1, 72) = 11.76, p < .001, showed that the younger females
preserved (had the least decrease in) the positive mood better than the youn-
ger males did, t(38) = 1.91, p < .06. The older males, on the other hand, pre-
served the positive mood better than the older females did, t(38) = –2.94, p <
.01.

Negative mood. A main effect of gender, F(1, 72) = 4.48, p < .05, showed
that females preserved the negative mood better than did males (smallest
increase was .78 vs. 2.25). A two-way interaction between type of lamp and
age, F(1, 72) = 7.64, p < .01, revealed that the older adults preserved (had the
smallest increase in) the negative mood better in the cool white lighting than
did the younger adults, t(38) = 1.93, p < .06. The opposite result, however,
was true for the warm white lighting, t(38) = –1.92, p < .06 (see Figure 2).
 Knez, Kers / EFFECTS OF LIGHTING, GENDER, AND AGE 825

Figure 2: Mean Change in Negative Mood in Younger and Older Adults As a

Function of Cool and Warm Lighting

COGNITIVE TASKS

For each cognitive task, an analysis of variance was computed on the par-
ticipants’ performance scores comprising the three between-subject inde-
pendent variables, except for the short-term recall task (see below).

Problem solving. The results revealed two effects: a main effect of age,
F(1, 72) = 72.84, p < .001, and a two-way interaction between gender and
age, F(1, 72) = 5.52, p < .05. The younger performed significantly better than
the older adults (younger = 18.2 vs. older = 6.1 out of 32). The younger
females were also shown to perform better than the younger males, t(38) =
2.0, p < .05, and a nonsignificant tendency toward the contrary effect among
the older females and males was indicated (see Figure 3).
826 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / November 2000

Figure 3: Mean Problem-Solving Performance in Females and Males As a Func-

tion of Age

Long-term recall. A main effect of age, F(1, 72) = 15.46, p < .001, showed
that the younger participants performed significantly better than the older
(younger = 10.2 vs. older = 6.5 out of 18.0).

Long-term recognition. The same effect as above was obtained. The youn-
ger adults performed significantly better than the older, F(1, 72) = 5.79, p <
.05 (younger = 9.7 vs. older = 8.9 out of 18).

Short-term recall. The participants’ free recall scores were subjected to an

analysis of variance, involving the following independent variables: 2 (type
of lamps) × 2 (gender) × 2 (age groups) × 3 (word lists), with the last variable
as a within-subjects factor. The main effects of age, gender, and word list
were obtained. As in previous tasks, the younger participants performed sig-
nificantly better than their older colleagues, F(1, 72) = 52.08, p < .001 (younger =
 Knez, Kers / EFFECTS OF LIGHTING, GENDER, AND AGE 827

6.5 vs. older = 4.6 out of 16). Women performed significantly better (6 vs. 5)
than men, F(1, 72) = 13.36, p < .001. The participants recalled significantly
(F(2, 144) = 6.01, p < .01) more positive than negative words, t(79) = 3.36,
p < .001.

PERCEIVED ROOM LIGHT

For each evaluation dimension, an analysis of variance, involving the

basic design independent variables, was computed on the participants’
scores, and the following two significant results were obtained. A main effect
of age on the bright dimension, F(1, 72) = 5.36, p < .05, showed that the youn-
ger adults assessed the room light as brighter than the did the older partici-
pants (3.4 vs. 2.8 on a scale ranging from 1 to 5). The same effects were
revealed on the cool dimension, F(1, 72) = 5.46, p < .05. Regardless of the
type of lamp, the younger participants assessed the room light as cooler than
their older colleagues did (2.8 vs. 2.1 on a scale ranging from 1 to 5).

DISCUSSION

As hypothesized, the room light changed the participants’ mood. How-

ever, only the negative mood was altered—differentiated across age group
but not across gender. The younger participants were shown to preserve the
negative mood best in the warm (more reddish) and least well in the cool
(more bluish) white lighting while working with a battery of cognitive tasks
for 90 minutes. For the older participants, however, the reverse effect was
observed (see Figure 2). This suggests that the coloring quality (type of lamp)
of indoor lighting may have communicated (Buck, 1984) different emotional
meanings (Rapoport, 1982) to younger and older adults. In other words, the
age groups seemed to share different conceptions about the room light. What
does this imply for lighting design? According to Knez (1997, p. 153): “All
this emphasizes the importance of the colour parameters in the design of
office lighting as related to an occupant’s individual, psychological
lighting-demands.”
The older males were shown to preserve the positive mood better than the
older females did (see Figure 1). The younger females preserved the positive
as well as the negative mood better than the younger males did; in accordance
with that, tentatively at least, they performed best in an abstract prob-
lem-solving task (see Figures 1 and 3). Thus, a relationship of affect to aging
and gender was indicated by these data.
828 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / November 2000

In agreement with the findings in cognitive aging research, the main effect
of age showed that the younger adults in all cognitive tasks performed signifi-
cantly better than the older adults, probably due to declines in the latter’s
encoding skills, retrieval skills, or both (for a review and discussion, see, e.g.,
Davies et al., 1992).
Consistent with Knez (1995a), the free recall results indicated a mood
congruence effect (cf. Blaney, 1986). Hence, perceived to be in a predomi-
nantly positive mood, the participants recalled more words from the positive
than from the negative word list. Yet, independent of the word list, females
performed better than males. This result is difficult to interpret. Because the
genders were evenly induced in both moods, the material to be recalled did
not consist of any gender-related words (Ellis & Ashbrook, 1991; McKelvie,
Standing, St. Jean, & Law, 1993), and no significant interaction between gen-
der and word list was shown.
The room light evaluation showed that, irrespective of the type of lamp,
the older participants evaluated the room light as less bright and less cool than
did their younger counterparts. This is probably due to the older adults’
age-determined visual impairments (Bernecker, Davis, Webster, & Webster,
1993; Blackwell & Blackwell, 1980).
Taken together, the results supported the notion that indoor lighting can
convey different emotional meanings. The impact of the demographic vari-
ables, gender and age, in the processes of affect was also shown, as was the
superiority of younger to older adults in cognitive performance.

REFERENCES

Baron, R. A., Rea, M. S., & Daniels, S. G. (1992). Effects of indoor lighting (illuminance and
spectral distribution) on the performance of cognitive tasks and interpersonal behaviors: The
potential mediating role of positive affect. Motivation and Emotion, 1, 1-33.
Bell, P. A., Fisher, J. D., Baum, A., & Greene, T. C. (1990). Environmental psychology (3rd edi-
tion). Forth Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Bernecker, C. A., Davis, R. G., Webster, M. P., & Webster, J. P. (1993). Task lighting in the open
office: A visual comfort perspective. Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society, 22,
18-25.
Biner, P. M., Butler, D. L., Fischer, A. R., & Westergren, A. J. (1989). An arousal optimization
model of lighting level preferences: An interaction of social situation and task demands.
Environment and Behavior, 21, 3-16.
Birnbaum, D. W., & Croll, W. L. (1984). The etiology of children’s stereotypes about sex differ-
ences in emotionality. Sex Roles, 9/10, 677-691.
 Knez, Kers / EFFECTS OF LIGHTING, GENDER, AND AGE 829

Blackwell, O. M., & Blackwell, H. R. (1980). Individual responses to lighting parameters for a
population of 235 observers of varying ages. Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Soci-
ety, 4, 205-232.
Blaney, P. H. (1986). Affect and memory: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 2, 229-246.
Boer, J. B. de, & Fischer, D. (1978). Interior Lighting. Antwerp: Kluwer Technical Books.
Boray, P. F., Gifford, R., & Rosenblood, L. (1989). Effects of warm white, cool white and
full-spectrum fluorescent lighting on simple cognitive performance, mood and ratings of
others. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 9, 297-308.
Bower, G. H., Monteiro, K. P., & Gilligan, S. G. (1978). Emotional mood as a context for learn-
ing and recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 17, 573-585.
Boyce, P. R. (1973a). Age, illuminance, visual performance and preference. Lighting Research
and Technology, 3, 125-144.
Boyce, P. R. (1973b). Current knowledge of visual performance. Lighting Research and Tech-
nology, 4, 204-212.
Boyce, P. R. (1981). Human factors in lighting. London: Applied Science.
Brainard, G. C., & Bernecker, C. A. (1995). The effects of light on physiology and behavior. Pro-
ceedings of the Commision Internationale de l’Eclairage 23rd session, Vol. 2. Vienna:
Commision Internationale de l’Eclairage, Central Bureau.
Brody, L. R., & Hall, J. A. (1993). Gender and emotion. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.),
Handbook of emotions (pp. 447-460). New York: Guilford.
Buck, R. (1984). The communication of emotion. New York: Guilford.
Butler, D. L., & Biner, P. M. (1987). Preferred lighting levels: Variability among settings, behav-
iors, and individuals. Environment and Behavior, 19, 695-721.
Carter, R. (1982). Äldre Kulturer [Older cultures]. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur.
Charness, N. (1981). Aging and skilled problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
General, 1, 21-38.
Commision Internationale de l’Eclairage. (1986). Guide on interior lighting (2nd ed.). Vienna:
Author.
Clark, M. S., & Waddell, B. A. (1983). Effects of moods on thoughts about helping, attraction
and information acquisition. Social Psychology Quarterly, 46, 31-35.
Cohen, S., Evans, G. W., Stokols, D., & Krantz, D. S. (1986). Behavior, health and environmen-
tal stress. New York: Plenum.
Craik, F.I.M., & Simon, E. (1980). Age differences in memory. The roles of attention and depth
of processing. In L. W. Poon, J. L. Fozard, L. S. Cermak, D. Arenberg, & L. W. Thompson
(Eds.), New directions in memory and aging. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dalgleish, T., Rosen, K., & Marks, M. (1996). Rhythm and blues: The theory and treatment of
seasonal affective disorder. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 35, 163-182.
Davies, D. R., Taylor, A., & Dorn, L. (1992). Aging and human performance. In A. P. Smith &
D. M. Jones (Eds.), Handbook of human performance (Vol. 3, pp. 25-61). London: Aca-
demic Press.
Dimberg, U. (1990). Facial reactions to auditory stimuli: Sex differences. Scandinavian Journal
of Psychology, 31, 228-233.
Dimberg, U., & Lundquist, L.-O. (1990). Gender differences in facial reactions to facial expres-
sions. Biological Psychology, 30, 151-159.
Ellis, H. C., & Ashbrook, P. W. (1991). The “state” of mood and memory research: A selective
review. In D. Kuiken (Ed.), Mood and memory: Theory, research and applications (pp. 1-21).
Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Evans, G. W. (Ed.). (1982). Environmental stress. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
830 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / November 2000

Fiedler, K., Pampe, H., & Scherf, U. (1986). Mood and memory for tightly organized social
information. European Journal of Social Psychology, 16, 149-164.
Flynn, J. E. (1977). A study of subjective responses to low energy and nonuniform lighting sys-
tems. Lighting Design and Application, 7, 6-15.
Forgas, J. P. (1995). Mood and judgment: The affect infusion model (AIM). Psychological Bul-
letin, 1, 39-66.
Fujita, F., Diener, E., & Sandvik, E. (1991). Gender differences in negative affect and
well-being: The case for emotional intensity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
70, 427-434.
Gifford, R. (1988). Light, decor, arousal, comfort and communication. Journal of Environmen-
tal Psychology, 8, 177-189.
Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1995). Emotion elicitation using films. Cognition and Emotion,
9, 87-108.
Hall, J. A. (1978). Gender effects in decoding nonverbal cues. Psychological Bulletin, 4,
845-857.
Hall, J. A. (1984). Nonverbal sex differences: Communication accuracy and expressive style.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hartley, A. A. (1989). The cognitive ecology of problem solving. In L. W. Poon, D. C. Rubin &
B. A. Wilson (Eds.), Everyday cognition in adulthood and late life (pp. 300-329). Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Heerwagen, J. H. (1990). Affective functioning, “light hunger,” and room brightness prefer-
ences. Environment and Behavior, 22, 608-635.
Hygge, S. (1993). A comparison between noise from aircraft, road traffic and trains on long-term
recall and recognition of a text in children aged 12-14 years. In H. Ising & B. Kruppa (Eds.),
Noise and disease (pp. 422-427). Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag.
Johnson, E. J., & Tversky, A. (1983). Affect, generalization, and the perception of risk. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 20-31.
Knez, I. (1995a). Effects of indoor lighting on mood and cognition. Journal of Environmental
Psychology, 15, 39-51.
Knez, I. (1995b). Non-visual effects of color temperature and illuminance: Some practical
implications. Proceedings of the Commision Internationale de l’Eclairage 23rd session,
New Delhi, India, Vol. 1, 180-183. Vienna: Commision Internationale de l’Eclairage, Central
Bureau.
Knez, I. (1997). Changes in females’ and males’ positive and negative moods as a result of varia-
tions in CCR, CRI and illuminance levels. Proceedings of Right Light: 4th European Confer-
ence on Energy Efficient Lighting, Copenhagen Denmark, November 19-21, Vol. 1, 149-154.
Knez, I., & Enmarker, I. (1998). Effects of office lighting on mood and cognitive performance,
and a gender effect in work-related judgment. Environment and Behavior, 30, 553-567.
Küller, R. (1987). The effects of indoor lighting on well-being and the annual rhythm of hor-
mones. Proceedings of the Commision Internationale de l’Eclairage 21st session, Venice,
Italy, Vol. 1(6), 342-345. Vienna: Commision Internationale de l’Eclairage, Central Bureau.
Lewis, M., & Haviland, J. M. (Eds.). (1993). Handbook of emotions. New York: Guilford.
MacLeod, A. K., Anderson, A., & Davies, A. (1994). Self-ratings of positive and negative affect
and retrieval of positive and negative affect memories. Cognition and Emotion, 5, 483-488.
McKelvie, S. J., Standing, L., St. Jean, D., & Law, J. (1993). Gender differences in recognition
memory for faces and cars: Evidence for the interest hypothesis. Bulletin of the Psychonomic
Society, 31, 447-448.
 Knez, Kers / EFFECTS OF LIGHTING, GENDER, AND AGE 831

Molander, B., & Bäckman, L. (1990). Age differences in the effects of background noise on
motor and memory performance in a precision sport. Experimental Aging Research, 2,
55-60.
Poon, L. W., Rubin, D. C., & Wilson, B. A. (Eds.). (1989). Everyday cognition in adulthood and
late life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Rapoport, A. (1982). The meaning of the built environment: A nonverbal communication
approach. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Rea, M. S. (1987). Toward a model of visual performance: A review of methodologies. Journal
of the Illuminating Engineering Society, 16 128-142.
Russell, J. M., & Snodgrass, J. (1987). Emotion and the environment. In D. Stokols & I. Altman
(Eds.), Handbook of environmental psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 245-280). New York: John
Wiley.
Schooler, C., & Schaie, K. W. (Eds.). (1987). Cognitive functioning and social structure over the
life course. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Smith, A. P., & Broadbent, D. E. (1980). Effects of noise on performance on embedded figure
test. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2, 246-248.
Smith, R. D. (1986). Light and health: A broad overview. Lighting Design and Application, 2,
32-40.
Smith, S. W., & Rea, M. S. (1978). Proofreading under different levels of illumination. Journal
of the Illuminating Engineering Society, 1, 29-33.
Staples, S. L. (1996). Human response to environmental noise: Psychological research and pub-
lic policy. American Psychologist, 2, 143-150.
Stapley, J. C., & Haviland, J. M. (1989). Beyond depression: Gender differences in normal ado-
lescents’ emotional experiences. Sex Roles, 5/6, 295-308.
Teasdale, J. D., & Spencer, P. (1984). Induced mood and estimates of past success. British Jour-
nal of Clinical Psychology, 23, 149-150.
Tennessen, C. M., & Cimprich, B. (1995). Views to nature: Effects on attention. Journal of Envi-
ronmental Psychology, 15, 77-85.
Ulrich, R. S., Dimberg, U., & Driver, B. L. (1991). Psychophysiological indicators of leisure
benefits. In B. L. Driver, P. J. Brown, & G. L. Peterson (Eds.), Benefits of leisure (pp. 74-89).
State College, PA: Venture.
Ulrich, R. S., Simons, R. F., Losito, B. D., Fiorito, E., Miles, M. M., & Zelson, M. (1991). Stress
recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments. Journal of Environmental Psy-
chology, 11, 201-230.
Vos, J. J. (1984). Disability glare: A state of the art report. CIE Journal, 2, 39-53.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures
of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psy-
chology, 54, 1063-1070.
Wetterberg, L. (1990). Lighting: Nonvisual effects. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment
and Health, 1, 26-28.