Cognitive Strategies and Natural Environments Interact in Influencing Executive Function.

ABSTRACT: Exposure to natural environments and the adoption of specific cognitive strategies are each claimed to have a direct influence on executive mental functioning. Here we manipulate both factors to help determine whether they draw on common cognitive resources. Three experiments investigated links between environmental effects (nature vs. urban video tours) and strategic effects (active vs. passive instructional approaches to the task). Each experiment used a pretest-posttest design and assessed executive mental functioning using a backward digit span task and Raven's progressive matrices. Experiment 1 manipulated participants' cognitive strategy through explicit instructions in order to establish a link between cognitive strategy and executive mental functioning. Experiment 2 used a pair of

SUBMITTER: Bourrier SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6064875 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature