Content area
Full Text
We investigated the effects of foliage plants on participants' task performance, fatigue, and mood. Two room conditions (one in which plants were arranged in the room and the other without plants) were created. Undergraduate students (M=33, F=37) performed 2 sessions of a key response task under one of the two room conditions. As for task performance, Plant x Session interaction was significant (p< .05). The task scores in the first session did not show any significant difference between 'plant and no plant conditions. Although it was not significant, the scores in the second session showed higher scores under the plant condition than in the no-plant condition. The plant condition and the no-plant condition did not show any differential effects on the deterioration of task scores in each session. Though the plants affected task scores, they did not show any effects on subjects' moods or fatigue. It was concluded that the presence of the plant might have influenced recovery from mental fatigue.
It is generally believed that looking at "nature" has a positive influence on recovery from fatigue, or stress. For many years this belief was unaccompanied by scientific proof. However, in recent years, the study of possible relations between the human and the natural environment gained popularity, and many researcher& have provided scientific data in support of this belief.
Ulrich (1984) reported that patients who could see nature through windows recovered faster than those who could see only a brick building. Hartig, Mang, & Evans (1991) suggested positive benefits on mental fatigue from just a brief exposure to the natural environment. Moreover, Hartig, et al. (1996) showed that people evaluated their mood more positively when they saw slides of natural scenes than those of urban settings. This suggests that the effects of nature can also be conveyed through slides.
There are two mainstreams of thought about the effects of nature on recovery from fatigue. The first was offered by Kaplan (Kaplan, S., 1995; Kaplan, S. & Kaplan, R. 1989), who theorized that the scenes of nature awakens one's fascination with it: clouds, sunsets, snow patterns, the motion of the leaves in the breeze - these readily capture one's attention, but in an undramatic fashion. The presence of natural beauty enables one to rest.
The...