Assessing the Objective and Subjective Impacts of Nature for Reducing Cognitive Fatigue

Abstract

Exposure to nature can help recover cognitive fatigue by enhancing working memory, attention control, and cognitive flexibility. However, these effects may be impacted by multiple confounding variables, including engagement level and baseline differences. Additionally, it remains unclear whether changes in objective restoration measures may extend to perceived fatigue as well. This study examined whether nature could reduce cognitive fatigue while controlling for initial fatigue levels and using a set of objective and subjective outcomes. Participants performed working memory and attention control tasks at pretest and posttest. Between these tests, they went through a cognitive fatigue task, followed by exposure to either nature or urban pictures on a computer. Measures of subjective fatigue, performance, and prefrontal cerebral activity were collected. While performance and neurophysiological measures were similar across conditions, nature exposure improved subjective fatigue reports, unlike urban exposure. This finding highlights how subjective and objective experiences of attention restoration may differ.