Word Recognition and Temperature

Murrain (1983), then a New York junior high school principal, examined the temperature preferences of 268 seventh grade students by administering the Learning Style Inventory (Dunn, Dunn, & Price, 1978). The 38 subjects with preferences for cool, and the 76 with preferences for warm environments were assigned randomly and equally to experimental groups. All subjects were tested twice; once in an instructional setting which was congruent with their temperature preference and once in an environment which was incongruent with their preference.

The warm classroom was maintained at a temperature of 80 degrees Farenheit; the cool room was 60 degrees Farenheit. A 2X2 Analysis of Variance compared the word recognition scores achieved by students in each environment.

Students preferring a warm environment evidenced higher scores in the warm room than in the cool one; students with a preference for cool temperatures scored better in the 60 degrees farenheit room. Means followed anticipated trends.

Overall, higher scores were obtained in an environment congruent with students’ diagnosed thermal preferences. The results were particularly profound in view of the only marginal preferences indicated by the learning style profiles of subjects in this investigation. These data clearly indicated that even a marginal preference, and not necessarily an extreme preference, can exert sufficient strength to be used as a predictor of academic achievement. The findings of this investigation and a review of the literature indicated that administrators should include thermal preferences as a criterion in facilities utilization, scheduling of major examinations, and planning the instructional environment.