Does watching videos with natural scenery restore attentional resources? A critical examination through a pre-registered within-subject experiment

Author

Andree HARTANTO, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Nicole Lee Anne TEO, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Verity Y. Q. LUA, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Keith TAY, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Nicole R. Y. CHEN, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Nadyanna M. MAJEED, Singapore Management UniversityFollow

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

5-2023

Abstract

Existing studies have shown that direct exposure to a real nature environment has a restorative effect on attentional resources after a mentally fatiguing task. However, it remains unclear whether virtual nature simulations can serve as a substitute for real nature experienced in the outdoors to restore executive attention. Given the mixed findings in the literature, the present study sought to examine if viewing videos with natural scenery (vs. a control with urban scenery) restores participants’ working memory capacity – measured by an operation span task – in a high-powered pre-registered within-subject experimental study. Overall, our within-subject experiment did not find any evidence to support the benefit of watching videos with natural scenery on restoration of executive attention. Moreover, the results from our Bayesian analyses further showed substantial support for the null hypothesis. Our study suggests that virtual nature simulations, even with the use of videos, may not be able to replicate the experiences of nature in the outdoors and restore attentional resources.

Keywords

attention restoration, exposure to nature, pre-registered experiment, virtual nature simulations, within-subject design, working memory capacity

Discipline

Applied Behavior Analysis | Experimental Analysis of Behavior | Social Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Experimental Psychology

Volume

70

Issue

2

First Page

96

Last Page

107

ISSN

1618-3169

Identifier

10.1027/1618-3169/a000578

Publisher

Hogrefe

Citation

HARTANTO, Andree, TEO, Nicole Lee Anne, LUA, Verity Y. Q., TAY, Keith, CHEN, Nicole R. Y., & MAJEED, Nadyanna M..(2023). Does watching videos with natural scenery restore attentional resources? A critical examination through a pre-registered within-subject experiment. Experimental Psychology, 70(2), 96-107.

Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3773

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000578