Cognitive components and the ability to ignore and adapt to irrelevant stimuli: a key factor in open plan offices?

Abstract

Employees differ in their apperception of open plan offices. Despite this, individual differences have been sparsely treated in the literature discussing effects of office design. The aim of the present study was to investigate how stimulus screening, working memory, and attention interrelate and affect important factors in the work environment. The study utilized a cross sectional design. Participants (N=35) were recruited among employees in four organizations. Working memory was assessed bye means of the Operation –Word Span Task (OSPAN) while attention was measured by the d2 test of attention. Dependent variables were job stress, job involvement, organizational commitment, and need for recovery. The results showed a main affect of stimulus screening on need for recovery and one subscale of organizational commitment. A main effect was also found for fluctuation rate across trials, a sub measure of attention, on need for recovery. The results revealed no indication of any mediator or moderator effects of either working memory or attention, on stimulus screening, for any of the dependent variables. Thus, the effect of stimulus screening seems not to be explained through individual differences in cognitive processes.