Chow, George K.2019-06-242019-06-24December 22018-12December 2https://hdl.handle.net/10657/4043An isolated and confined environment, which can be categorized as low, moderate, and extreme risk, is detrimental to the physiological and psychosocial well-being from office workers to space crewmembers. Countermeasures in mitigating the detrimental effects of sensory deprivation and social isolation in an office setting can potentially be applied to long-duration space missions. Moreover, despite the vast amount of research on detrimental effects, little is known on the effects of a wind or air somatosensorial feedback in an immersive virtual environment. A novel office workstation solution, which integrated a biophilic immersive environment and wind feedback, was designed and built. Other workstation design factors included a simple market research, construction & assembly, and ergonomics. The experiment was comprised of comparing 4 environmental conditions. An iPad mini app-based typing (keyboarding) test, Stroop Effect, and a cognitively demanding game (Mastermind) assessments were administered to quantitively measure task-oriented performance in the workstation. The study results were evaluated on the usefulness of the workstation countermeasures, and future development of solutions. Lastly, this study is part of a growing body of research about sensory and socially deprived environments.application/pdfengThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).Isolated and confined environmentsSensory deprivationSensory neuroscienceSocial isolationBiophiliaWorkstationOffice workerStroop Effect2019-06-24Thesisborn digital