Impact of outdoor air temperature during hostel-classroom commute on student’s classroom performance

This study investigated the performance of students attending class, but before attending class, they were at different climatic and metabolic conditions. We investigated the physiological and cognitive impacts of the commute of the students to reach their first lecture of the day. The commute was simulated in one room of a climate chamber, using a bicycle ergometer, at three different temperatures: 30 °C, 35 °C, and 40 °C. Attending the lecture was simulated in a different room of the same climate chamber, at a constant temperature of 26 °C. The participant’s skin and tympanic temperatures, pulse, and blood pressure were recorded at pre-specified time points during the study. The participants performed cognitive tasks, targeting working memory, task switching, and inhibition. Subjective thermal sensation and thermal comfort votes were also collected. The different commute temperatures did not significantly impact task accuracy (p > 0.05). However, the reaction time in all three tests was found to significantly increase for higher commute temperatures (p < 0.05). It was found that Stage 1 (i.e., when about to start cycling) and Stage 3 (i.e., entry of classroom) had a significant difference in tympanic and skin temperature (p < 0.05) while Stage 5 (i.e., end of 1 h of class) showed no significant difference (p > 0.05). A similar outcome was seen for thermal sensation votes. Overall, the results point to the outdoor air temperature during summer commutes impacting performance, subjective thermal sensation, and objective physiological measures of thermal comfort during the class hour, immediately following the commute.