ArticleFrontiers in psychology2020
Natural Is Not Always Better: The Varied Effects of a Natural Environment and Exercise on Affect and Cognition.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of green exercise on mental health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of urban green exercise on mental health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Chronic exercise and neuropsychological function in healthy young adults: a randomised controlled trial investigating a running intervention.Cognitive processing · 2024Trial
- Chronic nature exposure does not moderate affective and attentional effects of acute nature exposure.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Spreading New Light on Attention Restoration Theory: An Environmental Posner Paradigm.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Physical nature enhances creativity, while virtual nature strengthens creative self-concept.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis provide evidence for an effect of acute physical activity on cognition in young adults.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- I-MovE. An intervention to promote movement at childcare centers: Benefits for motor cognitive and socio-emotional development.PloS one · 2024Article
- Residential green space improves cognitive performances in primary schoolchildren independent of traffic-related air pollution exposure.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2023Article
- Walking in nature may improve affect but not cognition.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Simulating the Benefits of Nature Exposure on Cognitive Performance in Virtual Reality: A Window into Possibilities for Education and Cognitive Health.Brain sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) has been widely cited to account for beneficial effects of natural environments on affect and attention. However, the effects of environment and exercise are not consistent. In a within-subjects design, participants completed affective and cognitive measures that varied in attentional demands (memory, working memory, and executive function) both before and after exercise in a natural and indoor environment. Contrary to the hypotheses, a natural environment resulted in lower positive affect and no difference in negative affect compared to an indoor environment. A natural environment resulted in the most improvement for cognitive tasks that required moderate attentional demand: Trail Making Test A and Digit Span Forwards. As predicted, exercise resulted in improved affect and improved executive function (Trail Making Test B). There were no interactions between environment and exercise. These results suggest that ART cannot fully explain the influence of environment on affect and cognition.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.