Students' Attentional Processes in Indoor and Outdoor School Environments

• In Event: Attention and Strategy Use in Context

Abstract

This study focused on the role of indoor and outdoor school environments in third and fourth graders’ attention in interaction with emotion and physiological self-regulation. We investigated (a) by an emotional Stroop task, students’ allocation of attentional resources in response to emotional school-related pictures (positive vs. negative) embedded in different environmental backgrounds (outdoor green vs. indoor classroom); (b) by an attention task, students’ selective and sustained attention in real outdoor and indoor environments (school garden vs. classroom). Students were less distracted from emotionally negative pictures with outdoor backgrounds. Selective and sustained attention were also greater in the greenness than in the classroom. Moreover, sustained attention varied in relation to physiological self-regulation but only when the task was performed indoor.

Authors

• Lucia Mason, University of Padua

• Benedetta Zagni, University of Padua

• Francesca Bacchin, University of Padua

• Carlotta Frison, University of Padua

• Sara Scrimin, University of Padova