Additional research projects are in the planning stages. The Light Right Consortium is planning a field study for 2005– 2007 to investigate the impacts of lighting in the context of permanent employment situations.

The research team was selected through a solicitation and includes the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Institute for Research in Construction at National Research Council Canada.

The Albany research project uses a field simulation approach. This means that research will be conducted in an actual office setting, rather than a laboratory, but will utilize simulated tasks and a degree of experimental control which typify laboratory-type studies. This methodology was selected to enhance the realism of the study and, ultimately, to increase the external validity of the work.

The question this study is addressing is, "Can different forms of realistic office lighting affect the performance of office work or the well-being of employees?" The primary variables were room surface reflectance and personal control. An office was furnished as a typical office space for nine workers. The space had windows at the perimeter of the space and access to a view to simulate a typical open plan condition, but the actual daylight impact at the workstation locations was mitigated with the use of translucent window shades.

An office was furnished as a typical open plan workplace, and two experiments were conducted with a total of six different lighting conditions.

The space was carefully planned and outfitted to allow the researchers to change the lighting between different lighting systems without the knowledge of the subjects.

CONDITION 1: A regular array of parabolic-louvered luminaires
CONDITION 2: A linear system of direct / indirect luminaires, together with wall-washing to brighten the walls.
CONDITION 3: The same as the best practice but with a moveable desk lamp having three manually switched light outputs and providing some individual control.
CONDITION 4: Direct / indirect luminaires suspended over the center of each cubicle, together with the wall-washing system. The direct component of each suspended luminaire could be dimmed using an interface on the occupant's computer.
The conference room and hallway areas were designed to be consistent with the open plan designs for each of the conditions.
Condition 1 had parabolic luminaires in the conference room and hallway.
Conditions 2, 3, and 4 had indirect lighting solutions in the conference room and hallway.
The experiment was designed to test the effects of lighting design on the outcomes as well as indications of the psychological processes that might mediate these effects. The experimental methodology used both a between-subjects and within-subjects design. Temporary office workers were hired to work under the different lighting conditions for a typical 8-hour day. The tasks were typical of office work including clerical, cognitive and team tasks. Many different output measures were collected (both subjective and objective) resulting in a significant set of data. See results here.