40-second green roof views sustain attention: The role of micro-breaks in attention restoration

KE Lee; KJH Williams; LD Sargent; NSG Williams; KA Johnson

Journal article

40-second green roof views sustain attention: The role of micro-breaks in attention restoration

KE Lee, KJH Williams, LD Sargent, NSG Williams, KA Johnson

Journal of Environmental Psychology | Published : 2015

DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.04.003

Abstract

Based on attention restoration theory we proposed that micro-breaks spent viewing a city scene with a flowering meadow green roof would boost sustained attention. Sustained attention is crucial in daily life and underlies successful cognitive functioning. We compared the effects of 40-s views of two different city scenes on 150 university students' sustained attention. Participants completed the task at baseline, were randomly assigned to view a flowering meadow green roof or a bare concrete roof, and completed the task again at post-treatment. Participants who briefly viewed the green roof made significantly lower omission errors, and showed more consistent responding to the task compared t..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Kate Lee Author

Kathryn Williams Author

Nick Williams Author

Katherine Johnson Author

Related Projects (2)

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Grants

Awarded by Department of Sustainability and Environment

Funding Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Tim Fletcher, Nick Haslam, Scott Seibert and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on drafts and thank Simon Kelly and the Green Infrastructure Research Group. This work was partly supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant LP0990704 supported by the City of Melbourne, Melbourne Water, The Committee for Melbourne and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment. KL was supported by a scholarship funded through the Cybec Foundation.