Outdoor Breaks and Endogenous Attention

Background

Spending time outside in nature is thought to be important for mental health and neurodevelopment. The mechanism underlying the beneficial effects of nature on cognitive functions, however, remains unclear. We wanted to know how taking a 15-minute break in a selected area on campus might affect attention performance on a task. We also wanted to know whether individual differences, such as feelings of connectedness to nature and age, might play a role in the effect of nature on attention.

Research Questions / Hypotheses

• Does environmental preference moderate reaction times in the alerting, endogenous, and executive components of the Staged ANT task?
• Is perceived restoration greatest for those in the more preferred locations?
• Is connectedness to nature associated with changes in reaction times in the alerting, endogenous, and executive components of the Staged ANT task?
• Does a greater connectedness to nature strengthen the association between preference location and perceived restoration?

Participants

54 participants completed the study. One participant was excluded based on performance in the attention tasks. 53 had their data analysed.

Methods

Participants rate pictures of nine locations around the university campus in order of preference. After filling out surveys regarding their sleepiness and mood, they complete a computerized attention task. Based on their earlier preference responses, participants are then randomized into one of three conditions: high preference, medium preference, or low preference. Participants are then taken to the corresponding location to have a 15 minute outdoor break. Once complete, participants complete the computerized task once more, and re-fill surveys concerning sleepiness and mood, as well as additional surveys concerning perceived restoration and connectedness to nature.

Results

We analysed the within-subjects change in response times (for alerting, endogenous orienting, and executive attention components separately) after the outdoor break, as well as between-group differences in environmental preference. As expected, we found an endogenous effect (i.e., participants responded faster when the target location is correctly endogenously cued, compared to when it is incorrectly cued). Unexpectedly, we found no effect of preference location on attention control performance, compared to baseline. We also analysed the relationship between connectedness to nature scores and response times. We found that participants felt restored after the nature break irrespective of preference location. More specifically, however, for people with a strong connection to nature, preference location did matter as they were more restored when they were in a more preferred location, compared to a less preferred location. We also found attention performance on the computerized task was not moderated by one’s connectedness to nature.

Implications

This study adds new insight to a field of research that seeks to understand how nature influences our cognitive functioning. Where people spend time in nature and their connectedness to nature are both important factors for the perception of feeling restored after a nature break but are not important for actual restoration of attention control. This evidence may be used to guide greenspace and environmental preservation policy. These findings will be addressed in an honours level thesis.