Dataset Information

The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales.

ABSTRACT: Thermal discomfort is one of the main triggers for occupants' interactions with components of the built environment such as adjustments of thermostats and/or opening windows and strongly related to the energy use in buildings. Understanding causes for thermal (dis-)comfort is crucial for design and operation of any type of building. The assessment of human thermal perception through rating scales, for example in post-occupancy studies, has been applied for several decades; however, long-existing assumptions related to these rating scales had been questioned by several researchers. The aim of this study was to gain deeper knowledge on contextual influences on the interpretation of thermal perception scales and their verbal anchors by survey participants. A questionnaire was designed and consequently applied in 21 language versions. These surveys were conducted in 57 cities in 30 countries resulting in a dataset containing responses from 8225 participants. The database offers potential for further analysis in the areas of building design and operation, psycho-physical relationships between human perception and the built environment, and linguistic analyses.

SUBMITTER: Schweiker M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6879730 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales.

Schweiker Marcel M Abdul-Zahra Amar A André Maíra M Al-Atrash Farah F Al-Khatri Hanan H Alprianti Rea Risky RR Alsaad Hayder H Amin Rucha R Ampatzi Eleni E Arsano Alpha Yacob AY Azadeh Montazami M Azar Elie E Bahareh Bannazadeh B Batagarawa Amina A Becker Susanne S Buonocore Carolina C Cao Bin B Choi Joon-Ho JH Chun Chungyoon C Daanen Hein H Damiati Siti Aisyah SA Daniel Lyrian L Vecchi Renata De R Dhaka Shivraj S Domínguez-Amarillo Samuel S Dudkiewicz Edyta E Edappilly Lakshmi Prabha LP Fernández-Agüera Jesica J Folkerts Mireille M Frijns Arjan A Gaona Gabriel G Garg Vishal V Gauthier Stephanie S Jabbari Shahla Ghaffari SG Harimi Djamila D Hellwig Runa T RT Huebner Gesche M GM Jin Quan Q Jowkar Mina M Kania Renate R Kim Jungsoo J King Nelson N Kingma Boris B Koerniawan M Donny MD Kolarik Jakub J Kumar Shailendra S Kwok Alison A Lamberts Roberto R Laska Marta M Lee M C Jeffrey MCJ Lee Yoonhee Y Lindermayr Vanessa V Mahaki Mohammadbagher M Marcel-Okafor Udochukwu U Marín-Restrepo Laura L Marquardsen Anna A Martellotta Francesco F Mathur Jyotirmay J McGill Gráinne G Mino-Rodriguez Isabel I Mou Di D Moujalled Bassam B Nakajima Mia M Ng Edward E Okafor Marcellinus M Olweny Mark M Ouyang Wanlu W Papst de Abreu Ana Ligia AL Pérez-Fargallo Alexis A Rajapaksha Indrika I Ramos Greici G Rashid Saif S Reinhart Christoph F CF Rivera Ma Isabel MI Salmanzadeh Mazyar M Schakib-Ekbatan Karin K Schiavon Stefano S Shooshtarian Salman S Shukuya Masanori M Soebarto Veronica V Suhendri Tahsildoost Mohammad M Tartarini Federico F Teli Despoina D Tewari Priyam P Thapa Samar S Trebilcock Maureen M Trojan Jörg J Tukur Ruqayyatu B RB Voelker Conrad C Yam Yeung Y Yang Liu L Zapata-Lancaster Gabriela G Zhai Yongchao Y Zhu Yingxin Y Zomorodian Zahra Sadat ZS

Scientific data 20191126 1

Thermal discomfort is one of the main triggers for occupants' interactions with components of the built environment such as adjustments of thermostats and/or opening windows and strongly related to the energy use in buildings. Understanding causes for thermal (dis-)comfort is crucial for design and operation of any type of building. The assessment of human thermal perception through rating scales, for example in post-occupancy studies, has been applied for several decades; however, long-existing ...[more]

PMID: 31772199

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Project description:Understanding the factors that affect human thermal responses is necessary to properly design and operate low-energy buildings. It has been suggested that factors not related to the thermal environment can affect thermal responses of occupants, but these factors have not been integrated in thermal comfort models due to a lack of knowledge of indoor factor interactions. While some studies have investigated the effect of electric light on thermal responses, no study exists on the effect of daylight. This study presents the first controlled experimental investigation on the effect of daylight quantity on thermal responses, combining three levels of daylight illuminance (low ~130 lx, medium ~600 lx, and high ~1400 lx) with three temperature levels (19, 23, 27 °C). Subjective and objective thermal responses of 84 participants were collected through subjective ratings on thermal perception and physiological measurements, respectively. Results indicate that the quantity of daylight influences the thermal perception of people specifically resulting in a cross-modal effect, with a low daylight illuminance leading to a less comfortable and less acceptable thermal environment in cold conditions and to a more comfortable one in warm conditions. No effect on their physiological responses was observed. Moreover, it is hypothesised that a warm thermal environment could be tolerated more whenever daylight is present in the room, as compared to the same thermal condition in a room lit with electric lights. Findings further the understanding of factors affecting human thermal responses and thermal adaptation processes in indoor environments and are relevant for both research and practice. The findings suggest that daylight should be considered as a factor in thermal comfort models and in all thermal comfort investigations, as well as that thermal and daylight illuminance conditions should be tuned and changed through the operation and design strategy of the building to guarantee its occupants' thermal comfort in existing and future structures.

Project description:Thermal taste is a phenomenon whereby some individuals, known as thermal tasters (TT) experience taste sensations when their tongue is warmed or cooled. It was first reported in 2000 by Cruz and Green [1] and since then, most research has focused on comparing TT to thermal non-tasters (TnT; individuals who do not experience thermally-elicited sensations). As TT rate the intensity of taste stimuli higher than TnT, understanding the nature of this difference may help inform how individual differences in taste perception impact consumer liking and consumption of food and beverages. However, as the mechanism(s) underlying thermal tasting are yet to be fully elucidated, it is unclear if TT should be considered a homogeneous group or if subgroups exist. We created a dataset to help determine if the orosensory advantage is universal across all TT, or if it is mainly attributable to one or more subgroups of TT. To this end, the thermal taste screening data of 297 TT from 12 previous recruitment drives ('cohorts') was combined. This created the largest dataset of TT reported to date in a single study, allowing for an in-depth analysis of the differences between TT. After training on appropriate scale use, participants were familiarized with common taste and chemesthetic stimuli (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami, astringent and metallic). Using a sip-and-spit protocol, participants rinsed with the stimuli and rated the maximum intensity each stimulus elicited on a generalized Visual Analogue Scale (gVAS) or a generalized Labeled Magnitude Scale (gLMS). To account for minor methodological differences between the cohorts, ratings from each cohort were first converted to z-scores before being combined into the overall dataset. Next, participants underwent a series of 12 trials that assessed response to a thermal elicitation device during which each combination of two temperature regimes (warming and cooling) and three lingual sites (tongue tip, 1 cm to left, 1 cm to the right) were examined in duplicate. Participants were asked to rate the maximum intensity of any sensations experienced during each trial. TT were classified into subgroups based on the type of thermally-elicited taste reported (typically sweet, sour, salty, bitter, metallic), the temperature regime during which the sensation was elicited (warming or cooling) and the location on the tongue tested at which the sensation was experienced. Figures are provided that show the mean intensity ratings of aqueous solutions of chemical stimuli and corresponding standard errors for each of the TT subgroups. In addition, the TT Subgroup Naming Conventions provided should allow for a consistent and clear use of terminology across future thermal taste research. Readers are referred to Homogeneity of thermal tasters and implications for mechanisms and classification[2] for a full discussion of how these findings inform our understanding of the mechanism(s) underlying thermal taste and the practical implications of methodological differences in determining thermal taste status.

Dataset Information

The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales.

Publications

The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales.

Similar Datasets

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