I have a labor econonics question.Who conducted a study to see if better lighting could improve productivity?

Question

This study took place a long time ago. I am guessing anywhere from the 1940's to the 1960's. In those days the work place was very strict, no talking allowed.The study did show an improvement in productivity ,but better and improved lighting was not the reason. The productivity increased because the employee's where allowed to talk to each other. I heard of this study 20 years ago, in my labor economics class in college.
Could you help me find the name of the study and who conducted the study.?
Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

I think the study you are looking for is the one associated with the Hawthorne Effect.

Note that in retrospect, the conclusions are by no means clear, though when I studied it way back when, the argument was that the improvements in performance were due to the workers getting the impression that management listened to them.

Needless to say, Wikipedia has an article on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

But here are some other takes:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~stotts/204/nohawth.html
http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/hawth.html
http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/hawthorne_01.html