Measure the effects of thermal discomfort on the performance of office work

Accuracy and speed are the two distinct aspects of human performance. A method was proposed by which the speed and accuracy were integrated into one measure by designing the tasks in such a way that the participants can only proceed to the next test when the task was performed without errors. The method was examined through a subjective experiment with thermal environment as the prototypical example.

The experimental results indicate that the negative effects of thermal discomfort on human performance were evaluated well by the tasks designed with the proposed method. It provides a useful tool for better measurement of human performance and helps to facilitate the development of quantitative relationship between IEQ and productivity.