Can a comfortable chair reduce office stress?
Our latest research data shows that the Cosm office chair can help you feel more alert, think more clearly and work more productively.
Graphic by: Tsjisse Talsma
Could a chair really help you do better work? That’s the question Herman Miller set out to answer when we began a groundbreaking research project with the Texas A&M Ergonomics Center to study the effects of a comfortable chair on cognitive performance. When we think of ergonomics, we generally think of the purely physical interaction between the chair and the body. In contrast, this experiment focused on cognitive ergonomics. Memory, concentration, and cognitive flexibility (your brain’s ability to switch effortlessly between ideas and tasks) were evaluated – in short, how well a person can think in different chairs.
The Experiment
In collaboration with the Texas A&M Ergonomics Center, our researchers conducted cognitive neurological assessments, i.e., tests of productivity and cognition to evaluate participants’ thinking ability while sitting in three different office chairs:
- Non-adjustable
- Fully adjustable
- Automatically adjustable
Participants wore heart rate monitors to measure heart rate variability (HRV) quotient and an fNIRS device that maps blood flow in the frontal cortex of the brain (the seat of decision making and creativity). Participants performed tasks that require short-term memory, coping with situational changes, and cognitive flexibility – very valuable when, for example, you need to interrupt processing your expense report to answer an urgent email and then return to your receipts.
The study included the following tests:
Flanker-Task
Objective: To test inhibition, i.e. the ability to behave naturally and feel relaxed.
How the test works: focus on the direction of the arrow in the middle of the screen. For each new screen with multiple arrows, indicate which direction the center arrow is pointing.
N-Back-Test
Objective: To test short-term memory.
This is how the test works: remember the position of the shape that was displayed two screens before.
Set-Shift-Test
Objective: To test cognitive flexibility, i.e., how your brain shifts from one object to another (which is associated with creativity).
Here’s how the test works: look at a larger shape (circle or rectangle), which can be colored (red or blue), and match up the shape or color.
The results
In addition, the results of the set-shift test showed that people made decisions faster in a Cosm chair – without making more mistakes – than in the other chairs in this experiment. The Flanker task also showed that neural efficiency increases over time in people sitting in the Cosm chair.
What do the results mean?
The findings have important implications for the workplace, as a lower HRV quotient improves short-term memory, cognitive flexibility and the ability to concentrate – even amid the many distractions that are inevitable in today’s hectic, collaborative work environment. In fact, the researchers found that participants in the high-back Cosm chair did increasingly better (i.e., faster, more efficiently, and more accurately) at their tasks that required creativity over time, which was not the case with the other two chairs.
Conclusion
Notes
by Herman Miller and Texas A&M, proprietary and confidential, August 2017
