16 minute read
The predictive experience
from Exploration of the phenomenon of looking at the sky through a skylight window | master thesis
by Ana Nichita
This chapter follows the visual, circadian and cognitive processes of our physiological experience. In order to understand the benefits of the everyday experienced phenomenon of looking at the sky, we must first grasp the fundamental rhythms of the sky, as well as our response to it via our cognitive and visual processes.
The first part of the literature presents the predictive human experience – a study that introduces concepts of our visual and cognitive processes, linked the human intrinsic desire for the sky. The underlying physiological mechanics of our circadian, visual and cognitive systems, as well as their links to the sky, are discussed in this chapter, in separate sub-chapters. Timing is critical, as each system seeks to stay synchronized with one another and to anticipate any potential changes. The communication between our eyes and brains is considerably more two-way than previously assumed to be, with one assisting the other in preparing for the next moment in time.
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The evolving human vision and the energetic eye
“All senses contribute to the experience of the surrounding world, but vision occupies a place apart in perception; vision provides a spatial inner image.” (Arnkil, p.16).
According to Heschong, most of us perceive visual information so effortlessly and flawlessly, yet the processing going on within our brains is impossibly complicated (p.51). All sensory information enters the brain as pure data, based on electrical signals sent by neuronal axons from various regions of the body. Our visual system has 2–3 million axons that carry information from the retina to the brain, each one synthesizing input from 100 rods and cones on average, as well as ipRGC sensors. Our hearing system, on the other hand, has 30 times fewer nerve connections. This is only one of many examples of how our brains are wired to prefer visual information.
Although the mechanics of visual processing are not fully understood, new discoveries from anatomical and physiological research in monkeys indicate that visual signals are passed into at least three distinct processing systems (Horwitz, 2017). One system appears to process information primarily about shape; another appears to process information primarily about color; and a third appears to process information primarily about movement, position, and spatial structure. Thus, our primate ancestors are responsible for the reintroduction of daylight activities and, as a result, the main driver for our human daytime vision abilities, also known as photopic vision, are our cones (Heschong, p.38).
The photopic vision is the main focus of this study, as we, humans, count on it for the discrimination of detail and color vision to perceive the world around us (Remington, 2012), respectively the views we have access to, in daylight. Our cones dominate at the middle of our field of vision, where the fovea centralis (anatomically, foveola) is responsible for our visual structure. Interestingly, humans have fewer cones on the retina than other animals, in order to reduce the metabolic cost of vision (Otawa, 2008). That is because they demand significantly more energy to fulfill their purpose, conveying visual changes to the brain at a faster rate. The human eye is also one of the fastest and most active sensory organ, nearly at all times in motion (Heschong, p.44). It is therefore important to note that the concentration of cones and axons into one small, 0.35mm wide area of our eyes (the fovea centralis), as well as the demanding supply of energy for our eye muscles to be in constant motion, have important effects on the functionality of our visual system and hence, our health. Keeping the eyes moving is particularly essential to the eye health. As some research on digital eye strain shows, which is often linked to the immense amount of time spent indoors by people both working and engaging in personal activities in their homes, refocusing the eyes on some distant view every twenty minutes for twenty seconds at a time helps productivity and relaxes accommodative responses in humans (Sheppard, Wolffsohn, 2018). A beautiful, distant view outside a window turns out to be a significant motivator for us to keep our eyes moving – and a roof window fulfills the characteristics of such experience.
Rhythms of the sky
The daily cycle of light and dark is the most fundamental environmental shift experienced on our planet (Heschong). Because we have all lived with regular cycles of day and night since
birth, predicting that day will follow night may seem outrageously straightforward and simplistic. However, the severe environmental contrast between day and night, as well as the constant change of that rhythm, have important ramifications for all living forms on the Earth’s surface.
The human experiences are tied to planetary and solar rhythms and movements since ancient times (Bell, 2021), as well that they are determined by the global atmospheric patterns and weather that variably surges around our homes. To be healthy, all living forms on our planet must discover methods to adapt to environmental changes, as Heschong states (p. 11). Those who are most successful properly predict big environmental changes that may affect their potential to develop, allowing them to prepare for and rapidly adjust to new situations, and humans are no different. As a result, the better we can foresee the future, the more we can prosper.
The Earth revolves on its axis every 24 hours as it orbits the sun. However, not every planet does this: our planet’s 24-hour time period is unique. Single-celled creatures acquired an internal genetic clock, known as a circadian rhythm, early in the development of life to assist forecast the timing of day versus night. Internal clocks have been discovered in the genetic systems of every life form investigated so far on our planet (University of Cambridge, 2011). Human circadian system, however, is responsible for adapting to the constantly shifting durations of day vs night (Heschong, p.12).
The interplay between Earth’s daily rotation with the other two planetary rhythms – its tilted yearly orbit around the sun and the moon’s monthly orbit around Earth – provide vast rhythmic intricacy. All living forms, including humans, have discovered methods to adapt to this rhythmic complexity by employing a range of sensors and systems that gather data and offer continual input about changes and trends, allowing for improved forecasting of future situations. This interplay has been observed and tested in the context of vertical, side windows that offer a rather vast field of view to the environment outside, but the experience of the circadian intricacies seen through toplighting is not touched upon in many bodies of qualitative research.
Lam’s sunlighting design strategy (1986) was based on a thorough understanding of solar position in relation to building shape and openings. Despite the fact that the sun’s hourly location in the sky is completely predictable, few individuals master the principles of solar movement – home dwellers, however, don’t have a functioning compass in this regard, as their knowledge has been limited to that of grasping the changes from day to night, season to season alone. Windows help in creating recognition to the phenomenon of solar movement. Similarly, a skylight window in one’s home can also provide an opportunity for a sundial, establishing a discrete sun patch that moves around the room in a totally predictable rhythm (Heschong, p.129). Therefore, understanding the geographical link between season, time of day and sun orientation
may therefore assist a home dweller’s choices regarding where and why to install windows, or skylights instead of windows, in their own space.
Dynamic elements of the sky
Despite the fact that daylight is highly dynamic and in a constant movement, the path of the sun through the sky is entirely understood, as it is predictable. We can easily predict how much light enters through a roof window or strikes a window at any given time and space, and on any day of the year. We have a greater understanding of the elements of daylight, as opposed to the ones of the sky that can be linked to weather and vegetation.
As shown in Figure 5, the visible light component of solar radiation accounts for less than half of the total energy received directly from the sun when we are outside. The graph compares the intensity of solar radiation found outside the atmosphere to the ensuing spectral profile at sea level after passing through the atmosphere. Both have peak intensities in the blue wavelength, around 480nm. Those blue wavelengths are mostly diffused through the atmosphere, resulting in the blue of the blue sky. The resultant diffuse radiation from the sky, minus direct sunlight, is shown by the thick blue line at the bottom of the graph, peaking at around 480 nm.
Figure 5. Solar radiation: spectral intensity of the sun and the sky (Source: Velux)
The illustrated profiles of daylight are highly dynamic, since the intensity and color content of sunlight also change continuously according to the solar angle, and atmospheric and weather conditions.
When sunlight enters a room via a clear window, it can be easily ten times brighter, and contributes more than ten times as much energy into the room per square foot of window area than daylight. In addition, any patch of sunlight in a room is also in constant slow motion, tracking the arc of the sun in reverse. The patch will gradually enlarge or shrink depending on the geometry of the building and other obstructions. Thus, given both its intensity and variability, sunlight always has a dynamic presence in a room, making the room seem more vivid and lively. The dynamic variation of light, both daily and seasonally, is an important aspect in establishing and sustaining our 24-hour daily rhythms – our circadian rhythms – which, in turn, play an important part in the control of the sleep and wake cycle. (Velux, 2014, p. 20). Strong research designs demonstrate that a view of nature aids in the recovery from stressful situations, with emotional, physiological, and cognitive benefits (Veitch, Christoffersen, Galasiu, p.4).
Cognitive processes and the sky
Images of one sensory realm feed further imagery in another modality. Images of presence give rise to images of memory, imagination and dream (Pallasmaa, p.48).
Circadian stimulus comes from what we look at. From an evolutionary perspective, one of the first functions that developed was the detection of day and night characteristics of the circadian system, as a result of the awareness of the direction of the source of light. As we now understand, the main circadian receptors, intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, are located in the retina and have a great influence over our visual function, as previously seen, as well as over our cognitive function, as covered below.
Cognitive mapping, memory formation and retrieval, spatial awareness and mind wandering, all appear to be related in some way to our interaction with daylight and windows (Heschong, p.60). The history of how scientists have investigated these distinct mental states over the past decades is a potentially enlightening tale that may show the fundamental benefits of window views but also the future potential for expanding the research.
Cognitive maps and memory retrieval We humans also have a unique ability to create internal representations of our location in the greater world, which are sometimes referred to as cognitive maps (Heschong, p.56). In 1948, psychology professor Edward Tolma proposed the notion of a cognitive map to explain how rats learnt to traverse various mazes. In his 1960 book, Images of the City, urban planner Kevin Lynch broadened the concept to encompass the mental map of a place that individuals carry about with them, to assist them navigate their surroundings. Paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks were defined as five features that appeared to be consistent throughout the various stories of the people he talked to in the process. Since then, the term cognitive map has grown to refer to any type of mental representation of logical connection, not merely related to physical geography. For this study, I use the word in the same way as Kevin Lynch used, to refer to people’s awareness of the physical arrangement and interactions of their surroundings.
As Heschong states, we have now discovered that this mapping capacity is also closely linked to the creation of long-term memories (ibid.). The hippocampus is the brain region located deep in the brain, near the brain stem, that has been found as vital for both spatial mapping and memory. It is now recognized as the site of spatial orientation and navigation, as well as being necessary for the consolidation of short-term memories into long-term memories. What is more, exposure to daylight appears to play a function in the consolidation of long-term memories acquired in the hippocampus. According to a recent study from the National Institutes of Health, ipRGC cells in the retina have axon extensions that extend straight to the hippocampus, therefore daylight is likely to alter crucial hippocampal processes in some way.
Memory formation and imagination Imagination, often used interchangeably with ‘creativity’ (Murphy, 2022) combines episodic memory retrieval, visualization, mental modeling, and spatial navigation, making it a complex cognitive construct. In the context of views to the sky, we will now look at the process of seeing, not as a mere metaphor, but as a process of affirmation of a more important relation between understanding the content of the view and our imaginative or creative abilities.
Memory and mental imagery, which are frequently seen as aspects of the imaginative process, have been proven to interact with one another (Long, 2011). Various psychological variables can alter the brain’s mental processing and increase its ability to store information as long-term or short-term memories. The neocortex and thalamus are in charge of managing the brain’s imagination, as well as many other activities including consciousness and abstract thinking. Understanding how memory and imagination are related in the brain allows for a better understanding of one’s capacity to connect meaningful past and present occurrences with their surroundings (ibid.).
Furthermore, there is evidence that episodic and spatial memory formation is somehow linked to a circadian cue (Reppert, Weaver, 2002), such that it works well when the day and night lighting pattern is robust but declines when the day and night lighting pattern is weak. Window views can give both the information that informs the cognitive map, assisting us in locating ourselves in reference to the outside world, and the circadian stimulation that aids in memory formation. This is something our brains accomplish simply and automatically, so it is a natural function. We feel secure and well-oriented when we have that information stored away because otherwise, without it, we feel uneasy and disoriented.
Sky view as a gateway to mind wandering Mind wandering has been a modest topic of research in the realm of psychological theory, but it is regarded as highly relevant for this topic. Mind wandering is an everyday cognitive experience in which attention becomes discarded from the immediate external environment and focused
on internal trains of thought (Schooler, 2015).
In early research, mind wandering gained a negative connotation, often being called distracted thinking. William James, a 19th century psychologist, defines mind wandering as a scatterbrained state:
“Everyone understands the concept of attention. It is the mind’s distinct and vivid ownership of one of what appear to be multiple concurrently potential objects or trains of thought... It entails withdrawing from certain things in order to cope efficiently with others, and it is a condition having a true opposite in the confused, bewildered, scatter-brained state.” (James, p.403).
It used to be considered a key indicator of unhappiness and disability. However, psychologist Jerome Singer believed that there is a positive side to mind wandering as ‘positive constructive daydreaming’. Positive-Constructive daydreaming is characterized by a change in attention from a physical or mental job to a succession of thoughts generated from long-term memory, usually taking a narrative form (Kaufman, Singer, 2011). Daydreaming can be considered a subset of mind-wandering, with the exception that much of mind-wandering is characterized by shifts of attention from an already ongoing task to new sensory reactions in the individual’s physical, social, or bodily environment, rather than thoughts derived ultimately from long-term memory.
Singer began investigating the links between daydreaming, imagination, creativity, curiosity, and delayed gratification in children in the 1960s. He continued to hypothesize, as a lonely voice in the profession, that daydreaming was a normal, good function in both children and adults that assisted planning, problem solving, storytelling, and better social skills. In 2010, Harvard
psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert conducted a study which found that all people’s mind is wandering for 47% of the time while being awake and during all possible activities in a day. Because of this study, mind wandering quickly became a well-recognized cognitive activity of healthy adults, as suggested by Singer. Other researchers have begun to refer to mind wandering episodes as “mental time travel,” in which our thoughts project ahead into the future or far back into old memories (Heschong, p.71). According to Heschong, there is a need to anchor our sense of time in the present, therefore be intentional when engaged in mental time travel.
Writers and artists frequently rely on their window views to assist launch them into the fictional world of their creative activities, as well as to quickly return them back to reality. The American poet Emily Dickinson wrote extensively on her encounters with her window as a form of poetics of the soul, often her poetry being composed in front of a window (Baran Studio, 2014). It was an architectural extension of her soul and a means of sharing it with the outer world, while also providing an opening for her to take in outside stimuli.
Philosophers and psychologists agree that the purpose of glancing out a window is, ironically, not to discover what is happening outside but rather an exercise of finding the contents of our own thinking. People want to believe they understand what they think and feel, but this is rarely the case, as there is a lot of what makes us who we are that goes untapped and unnoticed. The window is also associated with the prominent French philosopher Gaston Bachelard as a philosophical space of existential contemplation in which ‘in’ and ‘out’ are dialectically made apparent in a single glance—as if the window itself is a required place to contemplate alienation (ibid.). Gazing out the window allows us to listen for the softer suggestions and viewpoints of our inner selves. Plato proposed a metaphor for the mind: our ideas are like birds fluttering around in the aviary of our brains. Plato recognized that in order for the birds to settle, we required moments of purposeless peace (The School of Life, 2018). Staring out the window provides such an opportunity, where one does not need to respond; one ought to not have any overarching ambitions, so the more hesitant elements of ourselves get a chance to be heard.
This goes to show that for many people, the experience of looking out an ordinary window is somewhat unconscious. This is a result of their mind wandering and thought processes being not fully conscious when looking out a window (Heschong). For this reason, mind wandering will be utilized as a driver of imagination to collect qualitative insight from the participants, as there proves to be a great potential at fulfilling the vision of this study. We will further look into the sensorial experience and the possibilities that a view to the sky offers, in relation to our physiological mechanisms already presented.
