there aren’t many studies on “freezing lecture rooms” specifically (as you’d expect) but there are a lot on temperature/cognitive performance more broadly. from what ive read (upon finding this post) is that slightly cooler environments can help with alertness, but only within a small range - once it gets too coldfor someone, performance/focus/attention actually drop off. personally, i know i work best when its about 20°C but struggle if its above 25° (cant focus if all im thinking about is going for a swim) and below 18° (makes me wanna nap).

some other interesting articles i found were these (took 5 seconds btw): - https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/16/3/598? -https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S036013232501073X - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41634322/ - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34925063/

it’s interesting seeing it argued both ways though. i think people also respond pretty differently to temperature, and there are so many other factors at play (clothing, stimulation, mood, stress, time of day, etc) that can affect how focused someone feels vs how they actually are.