scholarly journals Cognitive Restoration from Nature Across Multiple Exposure Types - A Meta-Analysis Delineating the Effects of Test Order and Affect

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Stenfors ◽  
Stephen Charles Van Hedger ◽  
Kathryn E Schertz ◽  
Francisco Calvache Meyer ◽  
Karen Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Digit Span ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Repeated Testing ◽  
Directed Attention ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Unpublished Studies ◽  
Test Order

Interactions with natural environments and nature-related stimuli have been found to be beneficial to cognitive performance, in particular on executive cognitive tasks with high demands on directed attention processes. However, results vary across different studies.The aim of the present study was to perform a meta-analysis of all our published and unpublished studies testing the effect of different interactions with nature versus urban/built control environments, on an executive test with high demands on directed attention: the backwards digit span (BDS) task. Specific aims were to evaluate the effect of nature versus urban environment interactions on BDS across different exposure types (e.g. being in real environments, or viewing videos, images, or listening to sounds) and disentangle the effects of testing order (i.e. practice with repeated testing) and the role of affective changes on BDS performance. We also reviewed the literature and compared and contrasted our meta-analysis with results from other studies. Results from our meta-analysis comprising 12 studies (N=567 participants) showed significant environment-by-time interactions with beneficial effects of nature compared to urban environments on BDS performance. This effect was magnified after parceling out initial practice effects on the BDS. Changes in positive or negative affect did not mediate the beneficial effects of nature on BDS performance. These results mirrored effects that we reviewed from outside of our laboratories. Uncontrolled and confounding order effects may explain some of the inconsistent findings in the literature. In all, these results highlight the robustness of the effects of natural environments on cognition when confounding order effects have been considered, and also provide a more nuanced account of when a nature intervention will be most effective.

The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting With Nature

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 1207-1212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc G. Berman ◽  
John Jonides ◽  
Stephen Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Span Task ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Attention Restoration Theory ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Directed Attention ◽  
Attention Restoration ◽  
Cognitive Benefits

We compare the restorative effects on cognitive functioning of interactions with natural versus urban environments. Attention restoration theory (ART) provides an analysis of the kinds of environments that lead to improvements in directed-attention abilities. Nature, which is filled with intriguing stimuli, modestly grabs attention in a bottom-up fashion, allowing top-down directed-attention abilities a chance to replenish. Unlike natural environments, urban environments are filled with stimulation that captures attention dramatically and additionally requires directed attention (e.g., to avoid being hit by a car), making them less restorative. We present two experiments that show that walking in nature or viewing pictures of nature can improve directed-attention abilities as measured with a backwards digit-span task and the Attention Network Task, thus validating attention restoration theory.

scholarly journals Natural Is Not Always Better: The Varied Effects of a Natural Environment and Exercise on Affect and Cognition

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet P. Trammell ◽  
Shaya C. Aguilar
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Indoor Environment ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Trail Making Test ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Affect And Cognition ◽  
Trail Making

The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) has been widely cited to account for beneficial effects of natural environments on affect and attention. However, the effects of environment and exercise are not consistent. In a within-subjects design, participants completed affective and cognitive measures that varied in attentional demands (memory, working memory, and executive function) both before and after exercise in a natural and indoor environment. Contrary to the hypotheses, a natural environment resulted in lower positive affect and no difference in negative affect compared to an indoor environment. A natural environment resulted in the most improvement for cognitive tasks that required moderate attentional demand: Trail Making Test A and Digit Span Forwards. As predicted, exercise resulted in improved affect and improved executive function (Trail Making Test B). There were no interactions between environment and exercise. These results suggest that ART cannot fully explain the influence of environment on affect and cognition.

scholarly journals Changes in the home range sizes of terrestrial vertebrates in response to urban disturbance: a meta-analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate O’Donnell ◽  
Javier delBarco-Trillo
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Urban Populations ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
Spatial Movement

Abstract The unprecedented growth rate in human population and the increasing movement of people to urban areas is causing a rapid increase in urbanisation globally. Urban environments may restrict or affect the behaviour of many animal species. Importantly, urban populations may change their spatial movement, particularly decreasing their home ranges in response to habitat fragmentation, the presence of landscape barriers and the availability and density of resources. Several species-specific studies suggest that urban animals decrease their home ranges compared with their non-urban counterparts; however, it remained unclear whether this pattern is widespread across taxa or is instead restricted to specific taxonomic groups. Consequently, we conducted a meta-analysis, collecting 41 sets of data comparing home ranges in both natural and urban environments in 32 species of reptiles, birds and mammals. We calculated effect sizes as the difference in animal home range sizes between natural and urban environments. We found that the home ranges were smaller in urban environments compared with natural environments (mean effect size = −0.844), and we observed a similar result when considering birds and mammals separately. We also found that home range sizes were not significantly affected when disturbance in urban areas was minimal, which suggests that many species may be able to tolerate low levels of disturbance without changing their movement patterns. Our study thus indicates that increasing levels of urbanisation restrict the spatial movement of species across taxa; this information is relevant for ecological studies of further urban species as well as for the development of management strategies for urban populations.

Restorativeness in Natural and Urban Environments: A Meta-Analysis

2019 ◽  
pp. 003329411988406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Menardo ◽  
Margherita Brondino ◽  
Rob Hall ◽  
Margherita Pasini
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Significant Heterogeneity ◽  
Environmental Attitude ◽  
Natural Element

In recent decades, there has been an increasing volume of research aimed out quantifying the extent to which the natural environment can assist in restoring mental, emotional, and physical well-being. It is commonly assumed that natural environments are more restorative than urban environments. However, studies addressing this issue use a variety of methods for data collection making it difficult to compare the findings of different studies. The research reported here uses a meta-analysis aimed at estimating how much natural environments are perceived as being more restorative than urban environments. We investigated the role of moderator variables such as research design, kind of natural environment, participants, measurement instruments used or the context in which the data were collected. PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Scopus, SpringerLINK, Web of Science online databases were used to identity all peer-review articles on restorativeness published to date ( k = 167). Reference sections of obtained papers were examined for additional studies. Only 22 studies met inclusion criteria (direct exposure to environment, comparison between one outdoor environment with natural element and one without natural element, and restorativeness measured by self-report scale) and were included in meta-analysis. Results show that natural environments are perceived to be more restorative than urban environments (Cohen’s d (confidence interval) = 1.99 (1.38–2.61)). Significant heterogeneity between the study was found ( Q(19) = 503.16, p < .001) and variability within studies was very high ( I2 = 97%). However, subsequent univariate moderator analyses were not significant. Other methodological differences (e.g., lighting conditions) could explain this variability. We concluded that the variability in studies is more likely to be due to individual differences (e.g., age, connections to nature, and environmental attitude) than the methodological differences.

scholarly journals The reduction of directed attention fatigue through exposure to visual nature stimuli: Exploring a natural therapy for fatigue

SURG Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-13
Author(s):  
Michael Varkovetski
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Attention Restoration Theory ◽  
Directed Attention ◽  
Natural Landscape ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Attention Restoration ◽  
Test Application ◽  
Attention Fatigue

This study compares the restorative effects on directed attention functioning following exposure to natural landscape images versus scrambled/distorted landscape images. Attention restoration theory (ART) provides an analysis of the stimuli and environment required for restoration of cognitive fatigue. According to ART, nature employs attention through a bottom-up process in which intrinsically fascinating stimuli from the natural environment itself modestly dominate attention. This allows the mechanisms responsible for top-down processing, which is necessary for directed attention, to recover and replenish. Unlike natural environments, urban environments employ attention through bottom-up stimulation, which forces one to overcome the stimulation using directed attention, thus not allowing for the recovery of directed attention mechanisms. This study looks into whether solely visual stimulation of natural environments is adequate for the restoration of directed attention mechanisms as measured with the “Attention Test” application. The mean completion time on the Attention Test game was significantly lower in the nature image group (M = 54.33) when compared to the scrambled image group (M = 62.04), thus validating the visual aspect of ART.

scholarly journals How effective are artificial nests in attracting bees? A review

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Rahimi ◽  
Shahindokht Barghjelveh ◽  
Pinliang Dong
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Wild Bees ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Artificial Nests ◽  
Nest Boxes ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Occupation Rate

Abstract Background Recent declines in bee populations, along with increasing demand for pollination services in urban, agricultural, and natural environments, have led to strategies to attract wild bees to these areas. One of these strategies is installing artificial nests adjacent to urban gardens and agricultural farms. Bee hotels and nest boxes are among the artificial nests used by gardeners and farmers to attract pollinators. In this paper, we reviewed 50 studies that reported the efficiency of nest boxes and bee hotels in attracting bees. We considered the maximum occupation rate (percentage) as the main index to evaluate the efficiency of artificial nests. Results The maximum occupation rate of bee hotels was higher in farms (averaged 44.1%) than in forests (averaged 30.3%) and urban (averaged 38.3%) environments. In the case of nest boxes, most studies reported efficiencies of less than 20%, with an occupation rate of 16% and 5.5% on average in forest and urban environments respectively. However, our meta-analysis results showed that there was no significant relationship between the occupation rate of the nests and their installation place. Regression analysis also showed that the structural features of bee hotels (length and diameter) and nest boxes (volume and entrance size) did not affect their efficiency in attracting bees. Conclusion Our data showed that the strategy of installing artificial nests to attract pollinators is successful only concerning bee hotels, and the use of nest boxes has not been very successful.

scholarly journals Effects of n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation in the Prevention and Treatment of Depressive Disorders—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1070
Author(s):  
Maike Wolters ◽  
Annkathrin von der Haar ◽  
Ann-Kristin Baalmann ◽  
Maike Wellbrock ◽  
Thomas L. Heise ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Treatment Duration ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Pufa Supplementation ◽  
Depressive Symptomology ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Significant Difference

N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been suggested to affect depressive disorders. This review aims to determine the effect of n-3 PUFAs on depressive symptoms in people with or without diagnosed depression. Medline, PsycINFO, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the association between n-3 PUFAs and depressive symptoms or disorders as outcomes. A random-effects meta-analysis of standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was performed. Twenty-five studies (7682 participants) were included. Our meta-analysis (20 studies) indicated that n-3 PUFA supplementation lowered depressive symptomology as compared with placebo: SMD = −0.34, 95% CI: −0.55, −0.12, I2 = 86%, n = 5836, but a possible publication bias cannot be ruled out. Subgroup analyses indicated no statistically significant difference by treatment duration of <12 vs. ≥12 weeks, presence of comorbidity, or severity of depressive symptoms. Nevertheless, beneficial effects were seen in the subgroups of studies with longer treatment duration and with no depression and mild to moderate depression. Subgroup analysis by eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) dosage revealed differences in favor of the lower EPA dosage. Sensitivity analysis including studies with low risk of bias seems to confirm the overall result. Supplementation of n-3 PUFA appears to have a modest beneficial effect on depressive symptomology, although the quality of evidence is still insufficient.

scholarly journals Effects of exposure to immersive videos and photo slideshows of forest and urban environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariba Mostajeran ◽  
Jessica Krzikawski ◽  
Frank Steinicke ◽  
Simone Kühn
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Jail Inmates ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Head Mounted Display ◽  
Sense Of Presence ◽  
Hospital Patients

AbstractA large number of studies have demonstrated the benefits of natural environments on people’s health and well-being. For people who have limited access to nature (e.g., elderly in nursing homes, hospital patients, or jail inmates), virtual representations may provide an alternative to benefit from the illusion of a natural environment. For this purpose and in most previous studies, conventional photos of nature have been used. Immersive virtual reality (VR) environments, however, can induce a higher sense of presence compared to conventional photos. Whether this higher sense of presence leads to increased positive impacts of virtual nature exposure is the main research question of this study. Therefore, we compared exposure to a forest and an urban virtual environment in terms of their respective impact on mood, stress, physiological reactions, and cognition. The environments were presented via a head-mounted display as (1) conventional photo slideshows or (2) 360$$^{\circ }$$ ∘ videos. The results show that the forest environment had a positive effect on cognition and the urban environment disturbed mood regardless of the mode of presentation. In addition, photos of either urban or forest environment were both more effective in reducing physiological arousal compared to immersive 360$$^{\circ }$$ ∘ videos.

scholarly journals The Effects of Urban Natural Environments on Preference and Self-Reported Psychological Restoration of the Elderly

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 509
Author(s):  
Ling Qiu ◽  
Qujing Chen ◽  
Tian Gao
Keyword(s):  
Green Space ◽  
Environmental Design ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Aging Populations

The world is facing the challenge of aging populations. Urban natural environments, including green spaces and blue spaces, have been demonstrated to have great benefits to the mental restoration of the elderly. However, the study of the specific characteristics of urban environments that are popular and the most restorative for the elderly is still lacking. Photo elicitation as visual stimuli was utilized to explore the differences in preference and psychological restoration of the elderly through the perception of the eight perceived sensory dimensions (PSDs) in different types of urban environments. The results showed that: (1) The respondents had different perceptions of the eight PSDs in the different urban natural environments. Blue space and partly-closed green space were more preferred by the elderly, and also had more psychological restorative effects on the elderly. (2) There was no significant correlation between the number of highly perceived PSDs and preference, as well as between the number of highly perceived PSDs and psychological restoration. However, there was a significant correlation between preference and psychological restoration. (3) Partly-closed green space with more Serene and Refuge qualities, and blue space with more Serene, Refuge and Prospect properties were optimal characteristics for psychological restoration of the elderly. In addition, open green space with more Prospect, Serene and Social qualities, and closed green space with more Space, Refuge and less Nature properties could also increase psychological restoration of older adults. These findings can provide useful guidelines for restorative environmental design for the elderly in the future.

scholarly journals Birth weight and adult earnings: a systematic review and meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Mark J. Lambiris ◽  
Mia M. Blakstad ◽  
Nandita Perumal ◽  
Goodarz Danaei ◽  
Lilia Bliznashka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Birth Weight ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Biomedical Literature ◽  
Economic Outcomes ◽  
Childhood Development ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Standard Deviation Increase ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Adult Earnings

Abstract While substantial evidence has identified low birth weight (LBW; <2500 g) as a risk factor for early life morbidity, mortality and poor childhood development, relatively little is known on the links between birth weight and economic outcomes in adulthood. The objective of this study was to systematically review the economics (EconLit) and biomedical literature (Medline) and estimate the pooled association between birth weight and adult earnings. A total of 15 studies from mostly high-income countries were included. On average, each standard deviation increase in birth weight was associated with a 2.75% increase in annual earnings [(95% CI: 1.44 to 4.07); 9 estimates]. A negative, but not statistically significant, association was found between being born LBW and earnings, compared to individuals not born LBW [mean difference: −3.41% (95% CI: −7.55 to 0.73); 7 estimates]. No studies from low-income countries were identified and all studies were observational. Overall, birth weight was consistently associated with adult earnings, and therefore, interventions that improve birth weight may provide beneficial effects on adult economic outcomes.

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