The impact of urban environments and nature relatedness on directed attention restoration

Research has identified that exposure to natural environments can improve cognitive performance through restoring fatigued directed attention. Although restoration likelihood has been mainly linked to natural environments, recent research has indicated that urban environments may have restorative potential. Restoration may also be influenced by individual factors such as nature relatedness. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a virtual environmental exposure intervention on the directed attention of participants with different levels of nature relatedness. Using a 2x2 factorial between within design, the present study measured the directed attention performance of participants using the Backward Digit Span task (BDS) before and after exposure to a six-minute natural outdoor environment video or urban café environment video. Nature relatedness was investigated using the Nature Relatedness Scale (NR-6). In contrast to previous research, the directed attention of participants who viewed the urban environment video was significantly improved compared to those who viewed the nature video, regardless of nature relatedness. The findings of this study suggest that, brief virtual exposure to an urban environment is effective in restoring fatigued directed attention. Additional studies are required to further investigate the potential benefits of virtual urban environment interventions in reducing negative affect.</p

mtDNA distances between Malagasy taxa belonging to the genus <i>Miniopterus</i> based on Kimura distances [34].

<p>mtDNA distances between Malagasy taxa belonging to the genus <i>Miniopterus</i> based on Kimura distances <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0092440#pone.0092440-Kimura1" target="_blank">[34]</a>.</p

Number of cyt-<i>b</i> sequences by taxon and region included in the present study; with one exception all belong to the genus <i>Miniopterus</i>.

<p>Full details including Genbank numbers and literature references are included in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0092440#pone.0092440.s002" target="_blank">Table S1</a>.</p

Bayesian majority consensus tree based on cvt-<i>b</i> sequence data and according to a HKY + G nucleotide substitution model.

<p>The first number at each node represents bootstrap support according to the Maximum Likelihood analysis; the second represents Bayesian posterior probability. An asterisk (*) at a node indicates full support from both analyses, i.e. 100/1.00. Where clades contain more than a single individual, these have been collapsed into triangles. Colour coding refers to the origin of the species, as follows: Blue  =  Madagascar; Green  =  Africa; Brown  =  Europe; Red  =  Asia and Australasia. Large bold numbers beside lineages indicate the five primary lineages referred to in the text.</p

Summary of different size and life-history parameters of Malagasy (M) and Comorian (C) <i>Miniopterus</i> spp. [19], [52].

<p>Body size: based on mean forearm length (FA), and animals are designated as small-bodied (SB), medium-bodied (MB) and large-bodied (LB); Distribution: E  =  east, N  =  north, W =  west, S  =  south, C  =  central and for the Comoros the name of the island is presented; Habitat: lhf  =  lowland humid forest, mhf  =  montane humid forest, oh  =  open habitat (anthropogenic), ddf  =  dry deciduous forest, sbf  =  spiny bush forest.</p

BEAST molecular clock analysis of representative cvt-<i>b</i> sequences, incorporating a HKY + G nucleotide substitution model and a Yule model of speciation.

<p>Molecular evolutionary rates were calibrated at 2% per million years under a relaxed lognormal clock. Numbers at nodes refer to the age of the node in millions of years (my); the scale bar indicates branch length in my. Grey bars represent 95% highest posterior distributions around node age estimates. Assemblages Y and Z are indicated as noted in the text.</p