No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
The potential of dynamic plants for attention and stress recovery in indoor environment
Ergonomics
Abstract
This study simulates the natural movement of plants in indoor environments to investigate whether these plants can effectively facilitate psychological, physiological, and emotional recovery from fatigue caused by short vigilance tasks. A total of 63 participants completed baseline assessments of emotional and physiological stress as well as attention and memory (including the POMS-SF, blood pressure, pulse, and Digit Span Backward). They then performed a vigilance task to induce fatigue, followed by a second measurement of stress and cognition. After random assignment to dynamic plant, static plant, or no-plant conditions for a rest intervention, participants underwent a final assessment. The results showed that all three conditions experienced significant fatigue induced by the vigilance task, with increases in stress and reductions in cognition. Following the intervention, those in the dynamic plant condition exhibited notably greater recovery across multiple indices-particularly in emotional stress and pulse-than those in the other conditions.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Previous research has shown the positive effects of exposure to real and virtual nature. To investigate how such benefits might generalize to ever-more-prevalent virtual workplaces, we examined the effects of the absence or presence of virtual plants in an office environment in Virtual Reality (VR) on users’ cognitive performance and psychological well-being. The results of our user study with 39 participants show that in the presence of virtual plants, participants performed significantly better in both short-term memory and creativity tasks. Furthermore, they reported higher psychological well-being scores, including positive affect and attentive coping, whilst reporting lower feelings of anger and aggression after exposure to virtual plants in VR. The virtual office with plants was also perceived as more restorative and induced a higher sense of presence. Overall, these results highlight how the presence of virtual plants in VR can have positive influences on users, and therefore, constitute important design considerations when developing future working and learning spaces.
Plants improve indoor environmental quality as a visual factor and enhance occupants' overall well‐being. However, research on the mechanisms by which plants improve human cognitive function is limited. This study examined the characteristics of eye movement while viewing indoor plants and their relationship with the cognitive benefits of plants. Thirty students performed cognitive tasks in four desktop conditions: no objects, real plants, artificial plants, and books. Eye movements while viewing plants during rest times in the reading span task (RST), which requires working memory, were characterized by a lower number of fixations, frequent dispersion of fixation points, and a higher number of blinks. Females showed higher RST scores under the real plant condition than under the no‐object condition. These results are consistent with the assumption that plants require lower cognitive effort and better restoration of attention capacity. In addition, in the real plant condition, females showed higher RST scores than males, and only females showed higher creativity scores than those in other conditions. Therefore, gender differences in the cognitive benefits of plants have been suggested. This study provides new insights into the effects of indoor plants on occupants' cognitive functions by quantifying visual perception processes using eye‐tracking technology. This study examined the characteristics of eye movement while viewing indoor plants and their relationship with the cognitive benefits of plants. Results of eye tracking and task performance were consistent with the assumption that plants require lower cognitive effort and better restoration of attention capacity. In addition, gender differences in the cognitive benefits of plants have been suggested.
A positive experience of nature triggers beneficial mental and physical responses. Today, we live in a rapidly urbanizing world where access to nature is often limited. Against this backdrop, this systematic review investigated studies on the effectiveness of small-scale greenery for stress reduction. We searched EMBASE, Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and Science Direct, searching databases from inception to April 2022. Studies were screened against predetermined criteria, and the risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions for RCTs and The Risk of Bias in Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. Of the 2500 records identified, we screened 1817 citations for eligibility, which included 13 RCT studies and 6 non-RCT studies. The studies were conducted in eight different countries. The study populations included office workers, students, senior citizens, and patients with specific diseases. Research has mainly focused on indoor greening, with relatively little research on small-scale outdoor greening. All included studies assessed the impact of the intervention on various stress reduction-related outcomes, with the most common stress measures being blood pressure and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Various beneficial effects of the interventions on human health were reported in all 19 studies, 15 of which reported positive effects on stress reduction. All included studies were at high risk of bias. It is recommended that future studies in this area take appropriate measures to reduce bias and improve quality in order to build a strong evidence-based medical foundation. According to our findings, even very small-scale greening, including indoor green walls and potted plants, may provide effective help for stress relief. Understanding the physiological and psychological benefits of small-scale greenery can help better provide more opportunities for urban residents to engage with nature in the context of dense urban trends, as well as provide some reference for urban design planning.
Indoor plants can positively impact physical and mental health in daily life. However, the benefits of viewing indoor plants may be enhanced if the plants emit a fragrant aroma. In this crossover-design study, we measured the physiological and psychological effects of fragrant and non-fragrant Primula plants on 50 female college students, and explored whether aroma stimulation had additive benefits for this group. Non-fragrant Primula malacoides Franch was used as a control stimulus, and Primula forbesii Franch, which has a floral fragrance, was used as an experimental stimulus. We measured blood pressure, pulse rate, and electroencephalogram (EEG) to evaluate physiological responses, and used a mood state profile and the semantic differential (SD) method to evaluate psychological responses. We found that mean blood pressure and pulse rate decreased significantly after the experiment in both conditions. EEGs showed that the mean values of high alpha waves, high beta waves, and relaxation scores were significantly higher in the experimental vs. control condition. The average scores on each subscale of the psychological questionnaire improved after the experiment in both conditions, and the vitality (V) subscale and total emotional state scores were significantly better in the experimental vs. control condition. The results of the SD method showed that the sense of relaxation and comfort were significantly higher in the experimental vs. control condition. Compared with the non-fragrant Primula, the fragrant Primula induced relatively better physiological and psychological effects.
Plant movements are generally slow, but some plant species have evolved the ability to move very rapidly at speeds comparable to those of animals. Whereas movement in animals relies on the contraction machinery of muscles, many plant movements use turgor pressure as the primary driving force together with secondarily generated elastic forces. The movement of stomata is the best-characterized model system for studying turgor-driven movement, and many gene products responsible for this movement, especially those related to ion transport, have been identified. Similar gene products were recently shown to function in the daily sleep movements of pulvini, the motor organs for macroscopic leaf movements. However, it is difficult to explain the mechanisms behind rapid multicellular movements as a simple extension of the mechanisms used for unicellular or slow movements. For example, water transport through plant tissues imposes a limit on the speed of plant movements, which becomes more severe as the size of the moving part increases. Rapidly moving traps in carnivorous plants overcome this limitation with the aid of the mechanical behaviors of their three-dimensional structures. In addition to a mechanism for rapid deformation, rapid multicellular movements also require a molecular system for rapid cell-cell communication, along with a mechanosensing system that initiates the response. Electrical activities similar to animal action potentials are found in many plant species, representing promising candidates for the rapid cell–cell signaling behind rapid movements, but the molecular entities of these electrical signals remain obscure. Here we review the current understanding of rapid plant movements with the aim of encouraging further biological studies into this fascinating, challenging topic.
Purpose: There has been limited investigation into how ‘biophilic design’ (i.e., the integration of nature within the built environment) can be effectively used within the workplace to facilitate the process of psychological restoration. This study focused in particular on the effectiveness of biophilic “restoration pods” in promoting recovery from stress.
Design/Methodology/Approach: A randomised field experiment was conducted. Thirty-two employees from a participating organisation completed two tests replicating typical office work (proofreading and arithmetic) and subjective ratings of stress, anxiety, and task-load both before and after a 10-minute micro-break, taken in either the regeneration pods (treatment group) or an ordinary meeting room (control group).
Findings: The results showed that participants who took their break in the regeneration pod reported lower post-break anxiety and perceived task-load, and higher post-break arithmetic task performance, than the control group.
Practical implications: The findings suggest that purpose-built spaces for restoration within office buildings will be effective for helping employees to proactively manage their stress levels whilst at work. Biophilic design principles will enhance the effectiveness of these spaces, and this does not necessarily need to involve direct exposure to plants or views of nature.
Originality/Value: To our knowledge, this is the first randomised field experiment to test the effectiveness of a purpose-built space for restoration within offices. Additionally, the study explores biophilic design strategies which had previously received limited attention in the research literature.
The aim in this literature review was (1) to explore the physiologically and psychologically therapeutic benefits of forest bathing on adults suffering from pre-hypertension or hypertension, and (2) to identify the type, duration, and frequency of an effective forest bathing intervention in the management of pre-hypertension and hypertension, so as to provide directions for future interventions or research. The electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PsyINFO, and the China Academic Journals (CAJ) offered through the Full-text Database (CNKI) were searched for relevant studies published from the inception of the databases to April 2019. Of the 364 articles that were identified, 14 met the criteria for inclusion in this review. The synthesis of the findings in the included studies revealed that forest bathing interventions were effective at reducing blood pressure, lowering pulse rate, increasing the power of heart rate variability (HRV), improving cardiac-pulmonary parameters, and metabolic function, inducing a positive mood, reducing anxiety levels, and improving the quality of life of pre-hypertensive or hypertensive participants. Forest walking and forest therapy programs were the two most effective forest bathing interventions. Studies reported that practicing a single forest walking or forest therapy program can produce short-term physiological and psychological benefits. It is concluded that forest bathing, particularly forest walking and therapy, has physiologically and psychologically relaxing effects on middle-aged and elderly people with pre-hypertension and hypertension.
This study was conducted to determine the physiological and psychological benefits of foliage plants as visual stimuli. Twenty-three elementary students (aged 11 to 13 years old) participated in this study. In a crossover design, electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure and determine the psycho-physiological effects of four different visual stimuli: an actual plant, artificial plant, photograph of a plant, and no plant. Subjective evaluations of emotions were assessed using the profile of mood state and semantic differential methods immediately after exposure to each visual stimulus. A significant decrease in theta waves of the frontal lobe was associated with presentation of the actual plants. This response indicated that the viewing of living plants prompted improvements in the attention and concentration of the elementary students. Furthermore, the presentation of the living plants was associated with more positive mood states, such as feelings of comfort and naturalness. In conclusion, actual plants may improve attention and prompt psychological relaxation in elementary students relative to artificial plants, photographs of plants, or the absence of plants.
Humans have a close relationship with nature, and so integrating the nature world into indoor space could effectively increase people’s engagement with nature, and this in turn may benefit their health and comfort. Since people spend 80–90% of their time indoors, the indoor environment is very important for their health. Indoor plants are part of natural indoor environment, but their effect on the indoor environment and on humans has not been quantified. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the role and importance of indoor plants in human health and comfort according to the following four criteria: photosynthesis; transpiration; psychological effects; and purification. Photosynthesis and transpiration are important mechanisms for plants, and the basic functions maintaining the carbon and oxygen cycles in nature. Above all have potential inspiration to human’s activities that people often ignored, for example, the application of solar panel, artificial photosynthesis, and green roof/facades were motivated by those functions. Indoor plants have also been shown to have indirect unconscious psychological effect on task performance, health, and levels of stress. Indoor plants can act as indoor air purifiers, they are an effective way to reduce pollutants indoor to reduce human exposure, and have been widely studied in this regard. Indoor plants have potential applications in other fields, including sensing, solar energy, acoustic, and people’s health and comfort. Making full use of various effects in plants benefit human health and comfort.
Advancements in electronic devices have led to increases in mental stress in modern adults, and removing this stress is crucial for mental health. The purpose of this study is to examine the psychophysiological benefits of contact with indoor plants. The effects of transplanting plants (horticultural activity) and work on a mobile phone (control activity) were assessed by blood pressure measurement, electroencephalography (EEG), the semantic differential method (SDM), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The SDM data showed that the subjects felt more relaxed, comfortable and natural, and experienced lower anxiety after the transplantation of plants than the control group. Participant’s total alpha and beta wave mean values increased over time during the transplantation task but decreased at the end of the control task. The mean meditation score was significantly higher after transplanting plants. Our study results indicate that contact with plants may minimize mental stress.
Background:
The robustness of F-test to non-normality has been studied from the 1930s through to the present day. However, this extensive body of research has yielded contradictory results, there being evidence both for and against its robustness. This study provides a systematic examination of F-test robustness to violations of normality in terms of Type I error, considering a wide variety of distributions commonly found in the health and social sciences.
Method:
We conducted a Monte Carlo simulation study involving a design with three groups and several known and unknown distributions. The manipulated variables were: Equal and unequal group sample sizes; group sample size and total sample size; coefficient of sample size variation; shape of the distribution and equal or unequal shapes of the group distributions; and pairing of group size with the degree of contamination in the distribution.
Results:
The results showed that in terms of Type I error the F-test was robust in 100% of the cases studied, independently of the manipulated conditions.
Objective:
We investigated the effects of a passive break, relaxation activity, and casual video game on affect, stress, engagement, and cognitive performance.
Background:
Reducing stress and improving cognitive performance is critical across many domains. Previous studies investigated taking a break, relaxation techniques, or playing a game; however, these methods have not been compared within a single experiment.
Method:
Participants completed a baseline affective and cognitive assessment (ACA), which included the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, shortened version of the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire, and backward digit-span. Next, participants completed a vigilance task, followed by another ACA. Participants were then assigned at random to complete a break or relaxation activity or play a casual video game, followed by a final ACA.
Results:
Participants who played the casual video game exhibited greater engagement and affective restoration than the relaxation condition. The break condition slightly decreased affect and prevented cognitive restoration.
Conclusion:
Playing a casual video game even briefly can restore individuals’ affective abilities, making it a suitable activity to restore mood in response to stress. However, future research is needed to find activities capable of cognitive restoration.
Application:
Many activities in life require sustained cognitive demand, which are stressful and decrease performance, especially for workers in performance-critical domains. Our research suggests some leisure activities are better than others for restoring fatigued affective processes.
Attention Restoration Theory (ART) suggests the ability to concentrate may be restored by exposure to natural environments. Although widely cited, it is unclear as to the quantity of empirical evidence that supports this. A systematic review regarding the impact of exposure to natural environments on attention was conducted. Seven electronic databases were searched. Studies were included if (1) they were natural experiments, randomized investigations, or recorded ?before and after? measurements; (2) compared natural and nonnatural/other settings; and (3) used objective measures of attention. Screening of articles for inclusion, data extraction, and quality appraisal were performed by one reviewer and checked by another. Where possible, random effects meta-analysis was used to pool effect sizes. Thirty-one studies were included. Meta-analyses provided some support for ART, with significant positive effects of exposure to natural environments for three measures (Digit Span Forward, Digit Span Backward, and Trail Making Test B). The remaining 10 meta-analyses did not show marked beneficial effects. Meta-analysis was limited by small numbers of investigations, small samples, heterogeneity in reporting of study quality indicators, and heterogeneity of outcomes. This review highlights the diversity of evidence around ART in terms of populations, study design, and outcomes. There is uncertainty regarding which aspects of attention may be affected by exposure to natural environments.
In this work, we present and evaluate a novel ambient information display that is designed to provide unobtrusive yet engaging feedback. The basis of this display is a natural, living plant, which is augmented in several ways to enable it to indicate information in various different ways. We describe the design and the construction of the InfoPlant, discuss its different modalities and present two demonstrator systems, including a novel eco-feedback display. A subsequent study showed that the InfoPlant was indeed perceived as unobtrusive by the large majority of participants and that it was easily accepted as a possible new entity in a living-room context. Also, the provided feedback was assessed as generally very helpful and that it would make users aware of their resource consumption and could have an influence on their consumption behavior.
The abbreviated vigilance task can quickly generate vigilance decrements, which has been argued is due to depletion of cognitive resources needed to sustain performance. Researchers suggest inclusion of rest breaks within vigilance tasks improve overall performance (Helton & Russell, 2015; Ross, Russell, & Helton, 2014), while different types of breaks demonstrate different effects. Some literature suggests exposure to natural movements/stimuli helps restore attention (Herzog, Black, Fountaine, & Knotts, 1997; Kaplan, 1995). Participants were randomly assigned to one experimental condition: dog video breaks, robot video breaks, countdown breaks or continuous vigilance. We assessed task performance and subjective reports of stress/workload. The continuous group displayed worst performance, suggesting breaks help restore attention. The dog videos did not affect performance, however, decreased reports of distress. These results support the importance of rest breaks and acknowledge the benefit of natural stimuli for promoting wellbeing/stress relief, overall suggesting performance and wellbeing may be independent, which warrants future studies.
The “digit span backwards” (DSB) is the most commonly used test in clinical neuropsychology to assess working memory capacity. Yet, it remains unclear how the task is solved cognitively. The present study was conducted to examine the use of visual and verbal cognitive strategies in the DSB. Further, the relationship between the DSB and a complex span task, based on the Simultaneous Storage and Processing task ( Oberauer et al., 2003 ), was investigated. Visualizers performed better than verbalizers in the dual task condition (r PB = .23) only when the relevant digits were presented optically. Performance in the DSB correlated only weakly with the complex span task in all conditions (all τ ≤ .21). The results indicate that the processing modality is determined by the preference for a cognitive strategy rather than the presentation modality and suggest that the DSB measures different working aspects than commonly used experimental working memory tasks.
Developments in information technology cause a great deal of stress to modern people, and controlling this stress now becomes an important issue. The aim of this study was to examine psychological and physiological benefits of interaction with indoor plants.
The study subjects were 24 young male adults at the age of 24.9 ± 2.1 (mean ± SD). The crossover experimental design was used to compare the differences in physiological responses to a computer task and a plant-related task. Subjects were randomly distributed into two groups. The first group (12 subjects) carried out transplanting of an indoor plant, whereas the second group (12 subjects) worked on a computer task. Then, each subject switched activities. The psychological evaluation was carried out using the semantic differential method (SDM) and physiological evaluation using heart rate variability (low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) components) and blood pressure.
Analysis of the SDM data showed that the feelings during the transplanting task were different from that during the computer task: the subjects felt more comfortable, soothed, and natural after the transplanting task than after the computer task. The mean value of total log[LF/(LF + HF)] (sympathetic activity) increased over time during the computer task but decreased at the end of the transplanting task, and the differences were significant. Furthermore, diastolic blood pressure was significantly lower after the transplanting task.
Our results suggest that active interaction with indoor plants can reduce physiological and psychological stress compared with mental work. This is accomplished through suppression of sympathetic nervous system activity and diastolic blood pressure and promotion of comfortable, soothed, and natural feelings.
The objective of the study was to test whether live plants on computer workstations with and without window view had restorative effects. Guided by Stress Recovery Theory and Attention Restoration Theory a mixed randomized experiment was conducted exploring restorative effects of plants, including mediating effects of perceived fascination. Eighty-five participants carried out a 1-hr work session with repeated tasks demanding directed attention in an office with one of three interior conditions: live plants, inanimate objects and control, all with and without a window view. Plant presence led to greater perceived fascination, but perceived fascination was not related to either self-reported restoration or directed attention capacity. The presence of plants during work did not have superior restorative effects compared with inanimate objects, neither with nor without access to a window view. However, environmental enrichment with either plants or inanimate objects at the computer workstation seemed to provide a restorative potential, which should be investigated further.
The effect of indoor environment may have an influence on the performance, productivity health and well-being of office workers.
Environmental factors such as indoor temperature and illumination have been investigated at three levels. A neurobehavioral test (NBT) has been proposed for the evaluation of office workersc performance. A field lab to emulate an office has been created. In controlled condition of environmental factors, the neurobehavioral test was conducted. The response time and the number of errors in each test have been recorded. A randomized block factorial design was used to analyze the responses of office worker’s performance.
The results revealed that the independent and interaction effect of temperature and illumination have significant effect on the office workers’ performance. The effect of indoor room temperature has more influences than the effect of illumination. The effect of indoor temperature has 38.56% of contribution on the performance. The optimum levels of indoor temperature at 21°C and illumination at 1000 lux have improved the work performance and health of office workers.
The indoor room temperature and illumination are more influence on the performance of the office workers. It may be concluded that the impact of indoor room temperature (38.56%) is more on the office worker’s performance than the effect of illumination (19.91%). Further, it may be concluded that the optimum level of indoor room temperature (21°C) and illumination (1000lux) have improved the work performance, health and productivity of office workers.
Repeated measures ANOVA and mixed-model designs are the main classes of experimental designs used in psychology. The usual analysis relies on some parametric assumptions (typically Gaussianity). In this article, we propose methods to analyze the data when the parametric conditions do not hold. The permutation test, which is a non-parametric test, is suitable for hypothesis testing and can be applied to experimental designs. The application of permutation tests in simpler experimental designs such as factorial ANOVA or ANOVA with only between-subject factors has already been considered. The main purpose of this paper is to focus on more complex designs that include only within-subject factors (repeated measures) or designs that include both within-subject and between-subject factors (mixed-model designs). First, a general approximate permutation test (permutation of the residuals under the reduced model or reduced residuals) is proposed for any repeated measures and mixed-model designs, for any number of repetitions per cell, any number of subjects and factors and for both balanced and unbalanced designs (all-cell-filled). Next, a permutation test that uses residuals that are exchangeable up to the second moment is introduced for balanced cases in the same class of experimental designs. This permutation test is therefore exact for spherical data. Finally, we provide simulations results for the comparison of the level and the power of the proposed methods.
E-Prime is the leading software suite by Psychology Software Tools for designing and running Psychology lab experiments. The E-Primer is the perfect accompanying guide. It provides all the necessary knowledge to make E-Prime accessible to everyone. You can learn the tools of Psychological science by following the E-Primer through a series of entertaining, step-by-step recipes that recreate classic experiments. The updated E-Primer expands its proven combination of simple explanations, interesting tutorials and fun exercises, and makes even the novice student quickly confident to create their dream experiment. Featuring:
Learn the basic and advanced features of E-Studio's flexible user interface.
15 step-by-step tutorials let you replicate classic experiments from all Psychology fields.
Learn to write custom code in E-Basic without having any previous experience in programming.
Second edition completely revised for E-Prime 3.
Based on 10+ years of teaching E-Prime to undergraduates, postgraduates, and colleagues.
Used by Psychology Software Tools to train their own staff. </ul
There is growing evidence to support the notion that contact with nature is helpful for emotional states, attention, mental fatigue, behavior, and personal health. This study adopts a quasi-experimental approach to investigate the effects of limitedly visible indoor plants on students' psychology, physiology, and behavior and uses a control-series design covering one semester. Two classes of sophomores at a Taiwanese junior high school (eighth grade, N = 76), of which one served as the experimental group and the other as control, were surveyed once every 2 weeks. After six plants were placed at the back of the classroom, the experimental group had immediately and significantly stronger feelings of preference, comfort, and friendliness as compared to the control group. Also, the experimental group had significantly fewer hours of sick leave and punishment records due to misbehavior than the control group. In addition to the visual and psychological mechanisms that contributed to restoration, there may have been other factors at work.
Subjects viewed sixty color slides of either (1) nature with water, (2) nature dominated by vegetation, or (3) urban environments without water or vegetation. The information rates of the three slide samples were equivalent. Measurements were taken of the effects of the slide presentations on alpha amplitude, heart rate, and emotional states. Results revealed several significant differences as a function of environment, which together indicate that the two categories of nature views had more positive influences on psychophysiological states than the urban scenes. Alpha was significantly higher during the vegetation as opposed to urban slides; similarly, alpha was higher on the average when subjects viewed water rather than urban content. There was also a consistent pattern for nature, especially water, to have more positive influences on emotional states. A salient finding was that water, and to a lesser extent vegetation views, held attention and interest more effectively than the urban scenes. Implications of the findings for theory development in environmental aesthetics are discussed.
This study documents some of the benefits of adding plants to a windowless work place - a college computer lab. Participants' blood pressure and emotions were monitored while completing a simple, timed computer task in the presence or absence of plants. When plants were added to this interior space, the participants were more productive (12% quicker reaction time on the computer task) and less stressed (systolic blood pressure readings lowered by one to four units). Immediately after completing the task, participants in the room with plants present reported feeling more attentive (an increase of 0.5 on a self-reported scale from one to five) than people in the room with no plants.
When a stationary object begins to move, visual spatial attention is reflexively deployed to the location of that object. We tested whether this capture of attention by new motion is entirely stimulus driven, or whether it is contingent on an observer's goals. Participants monitored a visual display for a colour change, inducing an attentional control set (ACS) for colour. Across the three performed experiments, irrelevant new-motion cues always captured visual spatial attention, despite the ACS for colour. This persistence of the attentional cueing effect demonstrates that ACSs, in particular an ACS for colour, cannot prevent new motion from capturing attention. Unlike other stimulus types, such as luminance changes, colour singletons, and new objects, new motion may always capture attention regardless of an observer's goals. This conclusion entails that new motion is an important determinant of when, and to where, visual spatial attention is deployed.
The Profile of Mood States (POMS; P. M. McNair et al, 1981) is a commonly used measure of psychological distress. The length of this scale (65 items) may limit its use with physically ill or otherwise impaired populations or prevent its inclusion in multiinstrument assessment protocols. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of a shorter, 37-item version of the POMS developed by S. Shacham (1983; POMS-SF). Data were provided by 600 respondents representing five different clinical samples and one sample of healthy adults. For all samples, internal consistency estimates for the POMS-SF subscales were very comparable to those for the original POMS. Furthermore, correlations between total mood disturbance and subscale scores on the POMS-SF and those from the original POMS all exceeded .95. The POMS-SF is considered an excellent alternative to the original POMS when a brief measure of psychological distress is desired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We review the ways in which two of Charles Darwin's lesser known works, The Movement and Habit of Twining Plants and The Power of Movement in Plants, stimulated 20th and 21st century research findings and philosophies. The legacy of Darwin's work permeates research on plant movement. For example, Darwin's demonstration that coleoptiles and roots fail to bend in response to light or gravity if their tips are removed helped researchers work toward the discovery of auxin and other plant hormones. Darwin's methodical observations on vine twining directions and circumnutation foreshadowed the recent discovery that 92% of vines twine in right-handed helices, regardless of their location on the planet. Finally, Darwin's observation of the similarity between plant responses to stimuli and the responses of lower animals foreshadowed the current debate over whether plants have ‘behaviour’. Thus, even Darwin's lesser-known works continue to influence research in the present day. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 160, 111–118.
This study investigated whether indoor plants were as effective as guided meditation for enabling psychological recovery after fatigue induced by the abbreviated vigilance task. Sixty students were randomly assigned to an indoor plant, guided meditation, or control rest-break condition. The psychological processes most in need of recovery were identified as cognitive and affective restoration. Measures of affect, stress, and working memory were taken before and after the vigilance task, and again after a rest intervention. The vigilance task induced fatigue as shown by a significant vigilance decrement and also significantly lowered positive affect and cognitive engagement, and significantly increased distress across all three conditions. After exposure to the break interventions, distress significantly decreased for participants in the indoor plant break condition while distress significantly decreased and engagement significantly increased in the guided meditation break condition. Indoor plants and guided meditation had a small, but significant positive impact on affective restoration and no significant impact on cognitive restoration.
Practitioner summary: Indoor plants are a cost-effective green ergonomics intervention in offices. This study found that a rest break with indoor plants was as effective as a rest break with guided meditation for affective restoration after fatigue from a vigilance task.
The cumulative science linking stress to negative health outcomes is vast. Stress can affect health directly, through autonomic and neuroendocrine responses, but also indirectly, through changes in health behaviors. In this review, we present a brief overview of ( a) why we should be interested in stress in the context of health; ( b) the stress response and allostatic load; ( c) some of the key biological mechanisms through which stress impacts health, such as by influencing hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation and cortisol dynamics, the autonomic nervous system, and gene expression; and ( d) evidence of the clinical relevance of stress, exemplified through the risk of infectious diseases. The studies reviewed in this article confirm that stress has an impact on multiple biological systems. Future work ought to consider further the importance of early-life adversity and continue to explore how different biological systems interact in the context of stress and health processes.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 72 is January 4, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Laboratory studies, mostly with students as samples, consistently demonstrate the psychological benefits of indoor plants. However, these findings do not always translate into benefits for employees in real work contexts. In three studies, this paper first looked to replicate the findings of previous laboratory studies for the South African context and then to assess whether these findings were robust in two call centre field studies. In the laboratory study, the condition with indoor plants performed statistically better on three measures of work performance. These positive outcomes could not be replicated in two field studies using various proxy measures of performance and wellbeing (perceived productivity, perceived physical and psychological health, work engagement, job satisfaction, and evaluations of the work environment) with varying lengths of exposure to indoor plants (6 weeks in Study 2 and 14 weeks in Study 3). The moderating role of connectedness to nature (Studies 1 and 2) was not supported while the moderating role of attractiveness of the plants (Study 3) was only partially supported in Study 3. These results are discussed in relation to the differences between laboratory and field studies, specifically in the context of call centre agents.
In this study we investigated under what conditions motion direction changes pop out in continuously moving target/distractor environments. Participants were presented with vertically oriented Gabor patches whose carrier components drifted at a constant speed from left to right and then reversed direction. On any given trial, one of these elements was nominated as the target and the remaining elements were distractors. Distractor elements all changed direction simultaneously. The distractors either moved in a homogeneous manner (i.e. all moved in the same direction), or in a heterogeneous manner (i.e. direction was randomized). The target moved with a similar spatio-temporal trajectory as the distractors from left to right (or vice versa), but changed direction asynchronously with respect to the distracting elements. The participants' task was to locate this deviant (target) Gabor patch. We show that a motion direction change pops out (as indicated by the absence of a set size effect) when the surrounding distractors move in a homogeneous direction. When the distractors moved in hetero-genous directions, a similar pop out effect was observed when the set size was small (≤5 elements), but not when it was large. This suggests that motion direction changes capture attention only when the change results in a unique direction of motion. Consistent with this finding we also show that a moving target (without direction change) captures attention in cases in which all distractors recently changed direction. This corroborates the idea that, in addition to direction cues, the temporal uniqueness of a change in an object's direction (or absence, thereof) relative to surrounding objects is a cue capable of capturing attention.
Objective:
To measure contributing attentional processes, particularly that of executive attention, to two iterations of the abbreviated vigilance task.
Background:
Joel Warm was at the forefront of vigilance research for decades, and resource theory is currently the dominant explanation for the vigilance decrement. The underlying mechanisms contributing to both overall performance and the decrement are only partly understood.
Method:
Seventy-eight participants answered questionnaires about their attentional skills and stress state, performed the Attention Network Test and two blocks of the 12-min abbreviated vigilance task, with a brief break between the two vigils during which they viewed images intended to affect performance. Changes in oxygenated hemoglobin were measured with functional near-infrared imaging.
Results:
Expected patterns were observed for both iterations of the abbreviated vigilance task, with performance declining after the first 2 min. Manipulations intended to evaluate whether executive processes contributed to vigilance performance failed to observe an effect. Other factors, particularly orienting and alerting attentional networks, task engagement, and subclinical ADHD symptomology were associated with performance. Significant factors for the first and second vigilance blocks were different.
Conclusion:
We suggest that (a) cognitive control is not a predominant factor, at least for the abbreviated vigilance task, and (b) attentional mechanisms and stress states affecting performance on the abbreviated vigilance task change over time.
Application:
Potential applications of this research include the use of breaks for sustained attention tasks involving high sensory load, and implications for the use of the abbreviated vigilance task as a proxy for general vigilance processes.
Attention Restoration Theory (ART) predicts exposure to natural environments may lead to improved cognitive performance through restoration of a limited cognitive resource, directed attention. A recent review by Ohly and colleagues (2016) uncovered substantial ambiguity surrounding details of directed attention and how cognitive restoration was tested. Therefore, an updated systematic review was conducted to identify relevant cognitive domains from which to describe elements of directed attention sensitive to the restoration effect. Forty-two articles that tested natural environments or stimuli against a suitable control, and included an objective measure of cognitive performance, had been published since July 2013. Articles were subjected to screening procedures and quality appraisal. Random effects meta-analyses were performed to calculate pooled effect sizes across 8 cognitive domains using data from 49 individual outcome measures. Results showed that working memory, cognitive flexibility, and to a less-reliable degree, attentional control, are improved after exposure to natural environments, with low to moderate effect sizes. Moderator analyses revealed that actual exposures to real environments may enhance the restoration effect within these three domains, relative to virtual exposures; however, this may also be due to differences in the typical lengths of exposure. The effect of a participants’ restoration potential, based upon diagnosis or fatigue-induction, was less clear. A new framework is presented to qualify the involvement of directed attention-related processes, using examples of tasks from the three cognitive domains found to be sensitive to the restoration effect. The review clarifies the description of cognitive processes sensitive to natural environments, using current evidence, while exploring aspects of protocol that appear influential to the strength of the restoration effect.
The current study used the Attention Restoration Theory to investigate whether plants in an office context produced restorative effects that enable employees to perform better. This study was one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the effect of indoor plants on experiences of performance outcomes within South Africa. In this experimental study, 120 participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) no plants or pictures of plants; (2) only plants; (3) only canvas pictures of plants. The rooms were identical in every other respect. Participants completed two tasks (a card-sorting task and a reading task) and two questionnaires, namely the connectedness to nature scale to assess participant’s nature identity and a perceived task performance questionnaire. The results from the ANOVA’s demonstrated a reduction in participants’ errors (F(2, 117) = 7.137, p = 0.001), a positive reaction to the given task (F(2, 117) = 8.904, p = 0.000), as well as reduction in participants’ task completion time (F(2, 117) = 43.422, p = 0.000) in the plants condition. The result from the two-way ANOVA’s demonstrated that nature identity did not moderate the above relationships (errors: F(1, 114) = 2.060, p = 0.132; completion time: F(1, 114) = 0.967, p = 0.383; reaction to the task: F(1, 114) = 0.017, p = 0.983).
Several properties of visual stimuli have been shown to capture attention, one of which is the onset of motion. However, whether motion onset truly captures attention has been debated. It has been argued that motion onset only captured attention in previous studies because properties of the animated motion used in those experiments caused it to be "jerky" (i.e., there were gaps between successive images during animated motion). The present study sought to determine whether natural motion onset captures attention. Additionally, the present study further examined the circumstances under which animated motion onset, the only type of motion onset that can be produced on a computer display, does and does not capture attention. In Experiment 1, participants identified target letters in search arrays containing distinct animated motion types, either accompanied or unaccompanied by a new object. Animated motion onset captured attention, but not when the motion onset was accompanied by a new object, indicating that prior failures to replicate capture by animated motion onset were limited because a new object had always been included in the display. Experiment 2 employed natural motion rather than animated motion and found that participants were fastest at identifying motion-onset targets compared to other target types. These results provide further support for the claim that motion onset captures attention.
Soft fascination is a key but underexamined element of Attention Restoration Theory (ART). According to ART, attending to softly fascinating stimuli not only requires little effort but also leaves mental space for reflection. We propose that soft fascination can be characterized as the interaction of both attentional effort and mental bandwidth and hypothesize that the restorative potential of everyday activities can be categorized based on this interaction. In an online survey, 398 adults rated four activities on Mental Bandwidth (MB), Perceived Restorativeness (PR), and preference. Supporting the hypothesis, the results showed that walking in nature was perceived as softly fascinating, whereas watching television was a source of hard fascination. Furthermore, PR, but not MB, was highly correlated with preference. Findings are discussed in the context of developing a measure to help people better anticipate activities that may or may not be restorative.
The use of plants as a mean for both visualization and interaction has been already explored in smart environments. In this work, we explore the possibility of constructing a controllable dynamic plant-based display using thigmonastic plants, i.e. plants that change the shape and position of their leaves as a response to external stimuli. As an initial step towards this vision , we first introduce our approach of building a plant-based pixel (plant-pixel, or plantxel), and the principles of composing a plantxel-based public display. We then present the results of a feasibility study conducted with Mimosa spegazzinii plants, showing that our approach can achieve an acceptable contrast ratio, which in turn depends on leaves density. Based on the results of the study, we present a working prototype of a plantxel that is composed of a plant, the air-based stimulation system, and the control logic. The prototype allowed us to assess the effectiveness of our design choices, and to outline some potential limitations. Finally, we discuss the possibilities of using such plant-based display for dynamic information visualization in public spaces and provide directions for future work.
Biophilic design, which incorporates natural elements into the built environment, has received increasing attention in both the design and health fields. But research quantifying physiological and cognitive benefits of indoor biophilic features is sparse. This randomized crossover study examines the physiological and cognitive responses to natural elements in an office building. Twenty-eight participants spent time in an indoor environment featuring biophilic design elements and one without, with the order of the visit randomized. In each visit, they experienced the environment for 5-min in reality and virtually by using virtual reality (VR). Wearable sensors were used to measure blood pressure, galvanic skin response and heart rate. Cognitive tests were administrated after each exposure. The indoor biophilic environment was associated with a decrease in participants' blood pressure. The overall differential effects for participants experiencing an indoor environment with biophilic elements versus none was 8.6 mmHg lower systolic and 3.6 mmHg lower diastolic blood pressure. In addition, their skin conductance decreased 0.18 μS greater than when they experienced the non-biophilic setting. Short-term memory improved by 14%. Participants reported a decrease in negative emotions and an increase in positive emotions after experiencing the biophilic setting. Moreover, our findings indicate that participants experiencing biophilic environment virtually had similar physiological and cognitive responses as when experiencing the actual environment. This gives rise to the possibility of reducing stress and improving cognition by using virtual reality to provide exposures to natural elements in a variety of indoor settings where access to nature may not be possible.
Land plants have adapted to survive under a range of wind climates and this involve changes in chemical composition, physical structure and morphology at all scales from the cell to the whole plant. Under strong winds plants can re-orientate themselves, reconfigure their canopies, or shed needles, leaves and branches in order to reduce the drag. If the wind is too strong the plants oscillate and sway until the roots or stem fail. The mechanisms of root and stem failure are very similar in different plants although the exact details of the failure may be different. Cereals and other herbaceous crops can often recover after wind damage and even woody plants can partially recovery if there is sufficient access to water and nutrients. Wind damage can have major economic impacts on crops, forests and urban trees. This can be reduced by management that is sensitive to the local site and climatic conditions and accounts for the ability of plants to acclimate to their local wind climate. Wind is also a major disturbance in many plant ecosystems and can play a crucial role in plant regeneration and the change of successional stage.
This paper carries forth the conceptual framework for biophilic design that was first laid out by Cramer and Browning in Biophilic Design (2008), which established three categories meant to help define biophilic buildings - Nature in the Space, Natural Analogues and Nature of the Space - and a preliminary list of "biophilic conditions". New research and insights from the neurosciences, endocrinology and other fields have since helped evolve the scientific basis for biophilic design. This paper begins to articulate this growing body of research and emerging design parameters in architectural terms, so that we may draw connections between fields of study, highlight potential avenues for future research, evolve our understanding of biophilic design patterns, and capture the positive psychophysiological and cognitive benefits afforded by biophilia in our design interventions. © 2014 Archnet-IJAR, International Journal of Architectural Research.
Mental health and physical condition of residents in newly built apartment houses in Seoul, Korea were evaluated considering indoor plant placement for two terms of observation. Residents demonstrated severe symptoms of sick building syndrome (SBS) for at least two years. Indoor plant placement alleviated the degree of SBS symptoms along with ventilation. Residents showed improvements in mental health during the period of ventilation, which was facilitated by the placement of indoor plants. The placement of indoor plants failed to make significant differences in the vital capacity or blood indices of residents, but led to slight improvements in some factors like forced vital capacity (FVC) and change in total immunoglobulin E levels (T-IgE). From the results above, it could be postulated that the placement of indoor plants alone was not enough to reduce the level of indoor toxic chemical substances. Therefore, the placement of indoor plants could be an environmentally friendly method to reduce the levels of toxic chemical substances with the supplementary application of ventilation.
Describes the psychological impact of wilderness experiences (WEs), summarizing findings from previous research on actual wilderness-training programs. These programs are designed to enhance the participants' feelings of self-sufficiency and self-reliance, provide survival skills, and develop sensitivity to and awareness of nature. The evaluation of such a program, the Outdoor Challenge Research Program, shows that enduring changes in self-esteem can result from WEs for a variety of different populations. Participants' responses to questions regarding the beneficial aspects of the WE can be grouped into general areas involving situational stress; enjoyment; fascination; perceptual changes; and appreciation of tranquility, privacy, and feelings of self-confidence and pride in personal accomplishment. Participants' reactions to returning to civilization are also described. Areas of theoretical interest and the emergence of psychological benefits in WEs are discussed. It is concluded that restorative environments of any type involve 4 critical factors for individuals: being away, fascination or interest, coherence of an alternative environment of considerable scope, and compatibility across domains of human functioning. (52 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Urban land-cover change threatens biodiversity and affects ecosystem productivity through loss of habitat, biomass, and carbon storage. However, despite projections that world urban populations will increase to nearly 5 billion by 2030, little is known about future locations, magnitudes, and rates of urban expansion. Here we develop spatially explicit probabilistic forecasts of global urban land-cover change and explore the direct impacts on biodiversity hotspots and tropical carbon biomass. If current trends in population density continue and all areas with high probabilities of urban expansion undergo change, then by 2030, urban land cover will increase by 1.2 million km(2), nearly tripling the global urban land area circa 2000. This increase would result in considerable loss of habitats in key biodiversity hotspots, with the highest rates of forecasted urban growth to take place in regions that were relatively undisturbed by urban development in 2000: the Eastern Afromontane, the Guinean Forests of West Africa, and the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka hotspots. Within the pan-tropics, loss in vegetation biomass from areas with high probability of urban expansion is estimated to be 1.38 PgC (0.05 PgC yr(-1)), equal to ∼5% of emissions from tropical deforestation and land-use change. Although urbanization is often considered a local issue, the aggregate global impacts of projected urban expansion will require significant policy changes to affect future growth trajectories to minimize global biodiversity and vegetation carbon losses.
Meta-analytic methods were used to summarize the results of Monte Carlo studies investigating the Type I error and power properties of various univariate and multivariate procedures for testing within-subjects effects in split-plot repeated measures designs. Results indicated that all test procedures were generally robust to violations of the multivariate normality assumption, but varied in terms of their Type I error control when the sphericity assumption was not satisfied. For balanced designs, the usual F and ê adjusted F tests (Greenhouse & Geisser, 1959) were generally robust to moderate degrees of covariance heterogeneity, whereas the multivariate procedures were slightly more affected by departures from this assumption. When the design was unbalanced, however, all procedures were sensitive to the presence of heterogeneous covariance matrices, particularly when testing the within-subjects interaction effect. Power rates varied little as a function of assumption violations. However, this finding may be due to the restricted range of many of the variables included in the meta-analysis of the power data as well as the strong and overshadowing relationship between the degree of non-centrality and power rates. For balanced designs, the use of either an ê-adjusted univariate or a multivariate approach is recommended; for unbalanced designs, researchers should consider adopting one of several robust alternatives that have recently been suggested in the literature.