Attention restoration benefits of integrating green space into office environment

Previous studies have demonstrated that having contact with natural environments can result in attention restoration for people who are mentally fatigued. In spite of this knowledge, we do not know the extent to which green indoor places impact attention restoration. Studies assessing the impact of green indoor spaces on attention have focus on potted plants and the findings have been mixed – often showing small or null results. In this thesis, I aim to find out if a larger scale of indoor greening, like indoor green space in the atrium, can help people recover from attention fatigue. This study explores such a possibility through an experiment in which 60 office workers were randomly assigned to simulated office environments with or without a window view of green atriums. We measured participants' attention functioning by Visual Reaction Time Test, Digit Span Backwards and the Color Stroop Test. Our result shows that the window view of indoor green space has some effects on attention restoration and that the impact of such spaces may be considerably less than views to an outdoor space.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.L.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Landscape Architecture

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Jiajing

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sullivan, William C.
• Emmerling-DiNovo, Carol
• Jiang, Bin

• Attention restoration
• indoor greening

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Jiajing Chen

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/93067

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/93067