Re: [Phys-l] Anti-vandalism in restrooms

["Dr. Keith S. Taber" <kst24@cam.ac.uk>]

There was an interesting study in one of the research journals where

"The hypotheses that decreases in interpersonal 
distance would lead to increases in the delay of 
micturation and decreases in the persistence of 
micturation were tested Š" p.544

they demonstrated that

"Micturation delay increased from a mean of 4.9 
seconds in the control condition to 6.2 seconds 
in the moderate distance condition to 8.4 seconds 
in the close distance condition. Micturation 
persistence also showed significant differences Š 
from 24.8 seconds in the control condition to 
23.4 seconds in the moderate distance to 17.4 
seconds in the close distance condition" p.455

They know this because they had someone hiding in the stalls with a periscope.

I discuss this in a research methods session, as 
I think it raises some interesting ethical 
questions! (I guess 1976 was a different time.) I 
suppose it's an unusual application of optics 
though.

Keith

Middlemist, D., Knowles, E. S., & Matter, C. F. 
(1976). Personal Space Invasions in the Lavatory: 
Suggestive Evidence for Arousal. Journal of 
Personality and Social Psychology 33(5), 541-546.


At 22:20 -0800 13/11/10, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
> IIRC,  the men's in the old Bay Tree restaurant 
> at UCSC had a blackboard -- most of the stuff 
> was "literary"!
>
> bc  remembers there was one somewhere.
>
>
> On 2010, Nov 13, , at 08:02, Richard Zajac wrote:
>
> >  How about hanging a white board on the wall?
> >
> >
> >  Souder Dwight wrote:
>  >> Greetings everyone.  At my school, we've 
> been having issues with students drawing and 
> carving onto the bathroom walls.  I was asked if 
> I knew of any way of deterring or catching those 
> that were doing it.  We try monitoring the 
> restrooms the best we can, but they still elude 
> us.  I was wondering if anyone had any 
> suggestions?

--
Dr. Keith S. Taber

http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/staff/taber.html
http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/kst24/

Author: Progressing Science Education - 
Constructing the Scientific Research Programme 
into the Contingent Nature of Learning Science 
(Springer: 2009)

University Senior Lecturer in Science Education

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