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Show HEALTH SCIENCES LEAP PROGRAM SPRING 2013 Mary Smith Jason Watson THE EXPLORATION OF THE EFFECTS NATURE HAS ON ATTENTION Mary Smith (Jason Watson) Department of Psychology University of Utah The study of nature and attention is becoming progressively more important in the exploration of cognition, which encompasses a plethora of mental processes. W e will look at whether there are any beneficial impacts or influences of interacting with certain settings on attention. In this particular study, a dissociation, or difference is expected in terms of the beneficial influences of nature on the amount of attention individuals exert in certain instances. A comparison will be made of the performance of participants as they engage in a video presentation of a replica of either a naturalistic or urban environment; paired with computer generated cognition tests which will result in the reflection of their level of attention. This three-part experiment will be conducted during an hour and a half session which will include; a computer generated attention task, a video depicting a particular environment setting (nature or urban), followed by a second computer generated attention task. W h e n considering the complexity of developing programs that focus on the improvement of cognitive performance, this study will prove to be very useful. Snapshots taken iron: the computer based r.ahjrdkstk environment S:id'js":irts tdken f:urr. the computer based urban environment 170 |