Citation

Burmeister CP, Moskaliuk J, Cress U. Front. Psychol. 2018; 9: e310.

Affiliation

Knowledge Construction Lab, Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Tübingen, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00310

PMID

29593613

PMCID

PMC5859676

Abstract

New communication technologies and mobile devices have enabled knowledge workers to work independently of location and in more than one fixed environment (ubiquitous working). Previous research shows that physical environments can influence cognition and work performance. We manipulated environment (i.e., a virtual office as a typicalwork environmentcompared to a virtual garden as anon-work environment) and time pressure (i.e., inducingtime pressurevs.no time pressure) in order to investigate whether the environment influences decision-making and concentration.N= 109 students participated in this laboratory experiment. We posited (a) that a work environment would activate a work-related schema which in turn would enhance concentration performance and make decisions more risky compared to non-work environments and (b) that the environmental effect is more pronounced if time pressure is present compared to conditions where no time pressure is present. We found modest hypothesis-confirming main effects of environment on decision-making and concentration but no interaction effect with time pressure. As we used an innovative methodology that entails several limitations, future research is needed to give insights into the process and to investigate whether results hold true for all types of work settings, work demands, or work activities.

Language: en

Keywords

concentration; decision-making; environmental effects; mobile work; personality; ubiquitous working; work demands