Musicians: Larks, Owls or Hummingbirds?

Previous studies have shown an association between morning and evening types and creative thinking. Musicians are creative individuals and the purpose of the current research was to examine whether musicians are significantly more evening types than non-musicians. The total sample included 835 participants (n women = 353; n men = 482), with a mean age of 28.0 years (SD = 10.4). The group of musicians consisted of 600 participants (n women = 168; n men = 432) with a mean age of 29.1 years (SD = 11.2). The group of non-musicians consisted of 233 participants (n women = 184; n men = 49) with a mean age of 25.3 years (SD = 7.4). Participants were recruited via an online forum, and chronotypes were assessed using the self-report Horne & Ostberg's Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ). We found that performance musicians had significantly lower MEQ scores compared to non-performance musicians, and musicians who composed had the lowest MEQ scores across the whole sample. This indicates that musicians, particularly composing musicians had a tendency towards eveningness. These findings are discussed in relation to theories on chronobiology, creativity, and cognitive psychology.

The Outdoor Care Retreat. / Friluftssykehuset.

Spending time in nature can have a regulatory effect on the body. The architectural design and location of the Outdoor Care Retreat at Oslo University Hospital create a unique therapeutic space.

Psychometric properties of the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire.

The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) is used in ergonomics research to measure behavioural problems associated with attentiveness and memory in everyday life. CFQ scores have been related to constructs such as accident proneness and outcomes such as human error and psychological strain. The two-year test-retest reliability of the CFQ is reported together with the findings of factor analyses of CFQ data from 535 respondents. Evidence for the predictive and criterion validity and internal reliability of the CFQ is provided. Psychological strain was measured concurrently with CFQ on both testing occasions, two years apart. The test-retest reliability of the summated CFQ score was found to be 0.71, while for the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) strain measure it was 0.32.The relative variance stability was five times greater for the CFQ than the GHQ, indicating that scores on these questionnaires are not covariates. The use of the CFQ as a measure of cognitive control capacity is also discussed. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: Ergonomists have long been interested in human error and the role of high work demands due to poor equipment design and excessive workload. The CFQ measures attentiveness in daily life and is shown to have excellent psychometric properties that make it suitable for use in both laboratory and field studies as a trait measure of attentiveness in daily life.

Towards an integration of recovery and restoration theories.

The attempts to balance between the actual and preferred states of activation or relaxation has been studied from a recovery and a restoration perspective. There are many noticeable parallels between restoration and recovery. Both traditions depart from understanding the need for the individual to regain finite resources that has been used to meet and handle external demands. There is some disagreement of the phenomena, and the terminology may differ as well as the implied meaning of the underlying concepts. Both traditions although consider resource use on one hand, and the processes to return to a state where these resources are replenished, on the other hand. To integrate the recovery and restoration traditions a tentative model is proposed, recognizing that both traditions departs from an interactive process perspective, where the need to replenish resources are consciously perceived.