Understimulation resembles overstimulation: Effects on school children's attentional performance, affect, and environmental preference

Abstract

Research on restorative environments has long examined the benefits of nature exposure for people whose resources have been depleted due to a situation that is too demanding for the individual. We argue that people's resources can also be taxed in understimulating situations, in which there is a lack of sensory, cognitive, social and/or behavioral stimulation, leading to a need for recovery. Exploring this phenomenon forms the main objective of this study. Given the potential benefits that contact with nature in educational centres has for children, we chose young children (N = 145, Mage = 9.34) at school as participants. We conducted a 3 (stimulation: under, over, and control) by 2 (environments: natural, urban) by 3 (time: before stimulation treatment, just after, and after exposure to environment) mixed-mode experiment. The environments were simulated through a series of slides presented on a screen in the classrooms where also the initial part of the experiment took place. Our results show that both under- and overstimulating situations are taxing for children's capacity for attention, and that understimulation decreases children's positive affect. After overstimulation, exposure to natural scenes restored attentional capacities, while exposure to urban scenes did not. After understimulation, exposure to any of the environments (nature; urban) restored children's attentional capabilities and lifted their mood. Future research could focus especially on low stimulation/low meaning situations to better understand their negative effects on attention and mood.