Abstract
Children today spend less time in nature than previous generations and there is concern that this shift negatively impacts children’s cognitive abilities, particularly their ability to direct their attention. Theories, such as the Attention Restoration Theory (ART), suggest that contact with nature may replenish endogenous attention (e.g., directed, voluntary attention). There is a lack of rigorous research on how contact with nature is associated with attentional performance in children. This study employed a quasi-experimental design and included a sample of typically developing children to investigate performance on computerized endogenous and exogenous attention tasks before and after exposure to one of two interventions – a 30-min walk in either an urban (n = 30) or natural (forested, n = 30) environment. The two experimental groups were equivalent with regard to sex ratio, age, IQ, and connectedness to nature. Attention was assessed using the Combined Attention Systems Test (CAST), a state-of-the-art assessment tool designed to evaluate exogenous and endogenous attention characteristics. Bayesian hierarchical modeling of both response time (RT) and error rate (ER) was employed to evaluate the fixed effect of attentional measures and interactions with session and group. Consistent with predictions of ART, results support credible effects of the nature intervention on two measures of endogenous attention: Alerting RT: d = 0.85 (95% CI: 0.21–1.8), Orienting ER: d = 1.45 (95% CI: 0.17–7.18), but not on any of the measures of exogenous attention.Clinical Trial Registration: https://www.isrctn.com/, identifier ISRCTN17762011.
Highlights
Modern lifestyles of children are predominately urban and indoors, disengaged from outdoor experiences with natural environments, and in contrast with psycho-evolutionary theories espousing contact with nature as crucial for healthy physical and cognitive development
We report the main effects of the attentional measures, validate an absence of group differences on these measures at session 1, and report interactions between these measures and session
We examined the following three hypotheses: (1) Children who were exposed to a natural environment during a 30-min reflective walk were expected to demonstrate improvements in endogenous attention, as indexed by change in performance on the Combined Attention Systems Test (CAST). (2) Exposure to nature was not expected to improve participants’ performance on the exogenous conditions of the CAST. (3) No changes were expected in endogenous or exogenous attention performance in those children and adolescents assigned to a 30-min reflective walk through an urban environment
Summary
Modern lifestyles of children are predominately urban and indoors, disengaged from outdoor experiences with natural environments, and in contrast with psycho-evolutionary theories espousing contact with nature as crucial for healthy physical and cognitive development. People are insulated from regular contact with nature (Maller and Townsend, 2006; The David Suzuki Foundation, 2012). This modern separation from nature is problematic because many studies with adult samples have indicated that exposure to nature is associated with improved well-being The health-enhancing properties of nature may be mediated through several mechanisms, including recovery from stress (Kuo and Faber Taylor, 2004), facilitation of social contact (Leyden, 2003), physical activity (Pretty et al, 2005), and the restoration of attentional resources (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Hartig et al, 1991). Despite growing evidence that nature enhances health and awareness of the potential problems associated with disconnection from nature, there has been little systematic study of how time spent in nature affects children
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
