The present study investigates the restorative effects of natural and urban environments on attentional control and emotional states. Utilizing the Additional Singleton task, participants were...Show moreThe present study investigates the restorative effects of natural and urban environments on attentional control and emotional states. Utilizing the Additional Singleton task, participants were tested for reaction times and accuracy before and after exposure to images of nature and urban settings. Contrary to the Attention Restoration Theory (ART), which posits a superiority of natural settings in restoring directed attention, our results indicated that exposure to urban environments enhanced attentional control in situations where distractive stimuli are present. The results revealed that exposure to urban scenery can have restorative benefits on attentional capture, mitigating attentional fatigue and resulting in improved reaction times and accuracy in a visual search task following exposure. Exposure to urban environments resulted in a decline in positive affect, while both types of scenery led to reduced negative affect. Participants exhibited a preference for natural over urban scenery, although this preference did not correlate with changes in attentional or emotional measures. The findings challenge the prevailing notion of the distinct advantage of natural environments in cognitive and emotional restoration and suggest that urban settings also might possess restorative qualities. Future studies should investigate the specific aspects of urban environments that contribute to these outcomes, emphasizing the importance of comprehensively understanding how different environmental factors affect overall well-being.Show less
A high number (55-59%) of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) lose their job due to complex interactions between disease related factors, the working environment, job demands and personal factors....Show moreA high number (55-59%) of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) lose their job due to complex interactions between disease related factors, the working environment, job demands and personal factors. Identifying factors that will help provide a sustainable and healthy working life is essential. Our aim was to examine the association between cognitive fatigue and work functioning. The study included 225 individuals with relapsing-remitting MS in paid employment (>12 hours a week) (75.6 % female, median age: 42.5 years, median EDSS: 2.0). Five multiple regression analyses were conducted while accounting for known correlates (age, gender, education, duration of disease, MSrelated disability, job type) to examine the relationship between both subjective and objective measures of cognitive fatigue and work functioning in employees with MS. Secondly, a correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between objective and subjective cognitive fatigue. Subjective cognitive fatigue is obtained by self-report questionnaires (Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)/Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS)) and objective cognitive fatigue is obtained by using a neuropsychological test, the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). The outcome variables are (1) current work ability compared to lifetime's best measured by the Work Ability Index (WAI) and (2) work functioning measured by the 4 subscales of the Work Role Functioning Questionnaire-2 (WRFQ-2). No association was found between objective cognitive fatigue and work functioning. An explanation could be that objective and subjective measures are often only weakly correlated with each other. A lower subjective cognitive fatigue (MFIS: β = -.18, p = .041; VAS: β = -.39, p = < .001) was associated with better work ability. No association was found between subjective cognitive fatigue and the 4 subscales of the WRFQ-2 measuring work functioning. Lastly, no association was found between objective cognitive fatigue and subjective cognitive fatigue. In conclusion, subjective cognitive fatigue was associated with self-reported work ability in persons with relapsing-remitting MS with mild disability, while objective cognitive fatigue was not associated with self-reported work functioning. Further research should focus on objective measures of work functioning and other objective measures of cognitive fatigue.Show less
