Exploring the Cognitive Benefits of Natural Environments
DICE-Lab (Bergen laboratory for the study of Decision, Intuition, Consciousness, and Emotion) is pleased to announce a guest lecture by Dr. David Pearson from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. The lecture is open to all staff and students. Everybody is very welcome!
Hovedinnhold
ABSTRACT
Despite a growing body of evidence supporting a positive association between natural environments and mental wellbeing, our understanding of why exposure to the natural world is beneficial remains more limited. A psychological approach called Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989) has argued natural environments reduce mental fatigue by placing less demands on our attentional system than built environments. However, the experimental evidence that directly supports this theory remains limited.
This talk will discuss the current relevance of Attention Restoration Theory to helping understand associations between the perception of natural environments and mental wellbeing. Recent experimental findings will be presented that demonstrate important differences between people's recovery from mental fatigue and their exposure to natural or built environmental scenes.
Biographical sketch
David Pearson is a Reader at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. His research is centered on working memory and mental imagery, including practical and clinical applications. He has published widely on the topic of mental imagery and creative thinking, including contributions to the books Imaginative Minds (Roth, 2007, Oxford University Press) and Imagery, Language and Visuo-Spatial Thinking (Denis et al., 2016, Routledge).