Pub Date : 2023-09-14DOI: 10.21083/surg.v15i1.7196
Kate McCauley, Kate Barlow
Soil carbon sequestration is a proposed method of mitigating climate change by removing atmospheric carbon dioxide and depositing it in soil. Sustainable agricultural systems such as regenerative agriculture are capitalizing on the opportunity for soil carbon sequestration to be a positive outcome of new land management practices. Regenerative agriculture is a soil-focused approach to farming with the goal of supporting soil health by increasing biodiversity and soil-focused practices. This article explores the possibility of regenerative agriculture’s land management practices to impact soil carbon sequestration via the promotion of plant biodiversity restoration. Examining studies testing the effects of three sustainable practices on soil carbon storage: agroforestry, crop diversification, and crop rotation, as well as native restoration efforts, a positive relationship is found between plant diversity and carbon sequestration. Agroforestry benefits carbon sequestration through stable deep-rooting systems and carbon storage in biomass. Crop diversification and rotation practices encourage nutrients to cycle into the soil and diversify soil microorganisms. The overall effectiveness of these practices in different environments, upper limits to carbon sequestration, and increased nitrogen requirements are possible limitations to these practices. However, the opportunity for plant diversity to restore soil health and carbon storage is critical. With Canada’s commitments to its 2030 emissions reduction targets, increasing sustainable agricultural action may present an opportunity to reduce carbon dioxide emissions substantially while remedying issues of biodiversity and food insecurity.
{"title":"Regenerative agriculture: increasing plant diversity and soil carbon sequestration on agricultural landscapes","authors":"Kate McCauley, Kate Barlow","doi":"10.21083/surg.v15i1.7196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/surg.v15i1.7196","url":null,"abstract":"Soil carbon sequestration is a proposed method of mitigating climate change by removing atmospheric carbon dioxide and depositing it in soil. Sustainable agricultural systems such as regenerative agriculture are capitalizing on the opportunity for soil carbon sequestration to be a positive outcome of new land management practices. Regenerative agriculture is a soil-focused approach to farming with the goal of supporting soil health by increasing biodiversity and soil-focused practices. This article explores the possibility of regenerative agriculture’s land management practices to impact soil carbon sequestration via the promotion of plant biodiversity restoration. Examining studies testing the effects of three sustainable practices on soil carbon storage: agroforestry, crop diversification, and crop rotation, as well as native restoration efforts, a positive relationship is found between plant diversity and carbon sequestration. Agroforestry benefits carbon sequestration through stable deep-rooting systems and carbon storage in biomass. Crop diversification and rotation practices encourage nutrients to cycle into the soil and diversify soil microorganisms. The overall effectiveness of these practices in different environments, upper limits to carbon sequestration, and increased nitrogen requirements are possible limitations to these practices. However, the opportunity for plant diversity to restore soil health and carbon storage is critical. With Canada’s commitments to its 2030 emissions reduction targets, increasing sustainable agricultural action may present an opportunity to reduce carbon dioxide emissions substantially while remedying issues of biodiversity and food insecurity.","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134914425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A welcome from the SURG Editor-in-Chief","authors":"J. McCart","doi":"10.21083/SURG.V9I2.4087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/SURG.V9I2.4087","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116840447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Income inequality has risen steadily in Canada over the last three decades, and particularly in Ontario, where it has grown at a faster rate. While the public response to this growth remains unclear, policy responses to address the issue have largely failed. To date, the literature remains divided as to the nature of the relationship between income inequality and support for redistributive policies such as welfare spending. This article argues, however, that where a relationship exists between income inequality and public support for welfare spending, it is a negative one. This negative relationship is in part due to perceptions of deservingness and factors explained by institutionalism. Even if support for governmental action to address income inequality is considerable both in Ontario and in the rest of Canada, support for governmental welfare spending is low. These findings point toward a public that is largely unresponsive to the problem of growing income inequality in Ontario. The results have implications for the development of policies to address inequality effectively, both in Ontario and in the rest of Canada.
{"title":"Income inequality and support for redistributive policies in Ontario: Who gets what, where, how, and who cares?","authors":"Tara Sutton","doi":"10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3804","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3804","url":null,"abstract":"Income inequality has risen steadily in Canada over the last three decades, and particularly in Ontario, where it has grown at a faster rate. While the public response to this growth remains unclear, policy responses to address the issue have largely failed. To date, the literature remains divided as to the nature of the relationship between income inequality and support for redistributive policies such as welfare spending. This article argues, however, that where a relationship exists between income inequality and public support for welfare spending, it is a negative one. This negative relationship is in part due to perceptions of deservingness and factors explained by institutionalism. Even if support for governmental action to address income inequality is considerable both in Ontario and in the rest of Canada, support for governmental welfare spending is low. These findings point toward a public that is largely unresponsive to the problem of growing income inequality in Ontario. The results have implications for the development of policies to address inequality effectively, both in Ontario and in the rest of Canada.","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129037557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Groundwater and surface water are tightly coupled elements of the hydrologic cycle that have often been treated as separate entities. Future climate change modelling has predicted that hydrologic cycle changes, namely increasing drought frequency and flood-type events, are likely to occur. These events may directly impact the quality and quantity of both groundwater and surface water. Future water management policies must therefore be based on an understanding of how interactions between groundwater and surface water will change with a warming climate. The aim of this study was to model and analyze the lateral flow of groundwater and its interactions with a nearby pond in a shallow, unconsolidated, unconfined aquifer. Data were collected as part of a larger and ongoing study during the year 2012, a comparatively dry year, and 2013, a comparatively wet year. We first used ArcGIS and Visual MODFLOW Flex to create a conceptual model of the system, its soil layers, monitoring wells, and potential flow patterns. We then analyzed hydraulic head data, and calculated groundwater flow volumes using the Dupuit equation. We found that the groundwater flow direction reversed in the summer of 2012 and continued until the spring of 2013. Additonally, flow rate was greater in 2013 than 2012. The flow reversal was likely caused by higher evaporative demand during the summer months of 2012, drawing substantially more water from the pond than from the soil. The two-year timeframe was not long enough to determine whether this was a typical, yearly pattern, or was primarily due to the fact that 2012 was a particularly dry year.
{"title":"Lateral groundwater flow and pond interactions during dry and wet years","authors":"Andrew Wicke, Thair Patros, G. Parkin","doi":"10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3821","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3821","url":null,"abstract":"Groundwater and surface water are tightly coupled elements of the hydrologic cycle that have often been treated as separate entities. Future climate change modelling has predicted that hydrologic cycle changes, namely increasing drought frequency and flood-type events, are likely to occur. These events may directly impact the quality and quantity of both groundwater and surface water. Future water management policies must therefore be based on an understanding of how interactions between groundwater and surface water will change with a warming climate. The aim of this study was to model and analyze the lateral flow of groundwater and its interactions with a nearby pond in a shallow, unconsolidated, unconfined aquifer. Data were collected as part of a larger and ongoing study during the year 2012, a comparatively dry year, and 2013, a comparatively wet year. We first used ArcGIS and Visual MODFLOW Flex to create a conceptual model of the system, its soil layers, monitoring wells, and potential flow patterns. We then analyzed hydraulic head data, and calculated groundwater flow volumes using the Dupuit equation. We found that the groundwater flow direction reversed in the summer of 2012 and continued until the spring of 2013. Additonally, flow rate was greater in 2013 than 2012. The flow reversal was likely caused by higher evaporative demand during the summer months of 2012, drawing substantially more water from the pond than from the soil. The two-year timeframe was not long enough to determine whether this was a typical, yearly pattern, or was primarily due to the fact that 2012 was a particularly dry year.","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132670909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Celeste Noble, E. Silk, A. Jairaj, J. Morrison, Xiao Shen, Pauline Zhang, Amanda Jowett, Claire Segeren
This Special Series features research highlights from the Ontario Veterinary College’s Career Opportunities and Research Experience (CORE) Program (previously the Summer Leadership and Research Program), which ran from May 5th to August 12th, 2016. The CORE program was designed to provide B.Sc and D.V.M. students with additional exposure to the professional world of veterinary medicine and research. Alongside their work with researchers and faculty members, student participants attended a Round Table series, several conferences, field trips to research facilities, and professional development workshops. CORE participants also delivered oral and poster presentations, sharing the results of their research with peers and with the University of Guelph’s larger research community. Selected abstracts from these presentations are included here.
{"title":"Research highlights from the Ontario Veterinary College’s Career Opportunities and Research Experience (CORE) Program","authors":"Celeste Noble, E. Silk, A. Jairaj, J. Morrison, Xiao Shen, Pauline Zhang, Amanda Jowett, Claire Segeren","doi":"10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3924","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3924","url":null,"abstract":"This Special Series features research highlights from the Ontario Veterinary College’s Career Opportunities and Research Experience (CORE) Program (previously the Summer Leadership and Research Program), which ran from May 5th to August 12th, 2016. The CORE program was designed to provide B.Sc and D.V.M. students with additional exposure to the professional world of veterinary medicine and research. Alongside their work with researchers and faculty members, student participants attended a Round Table series, several conferences, field trips to research facilities, and professional development workshops. CORE participants also delivered oral and poster presentations, sharing the results of their research with peers and with the University of Guelph’s larger research community. Selected abstracts from these presentations are included here.","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"40 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120913465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1903, the Macdonald Institute opened in Guelph with the stated aim of training rural women in home economics and domestic science. Part of the Ontario Agriculture College (OAC), the school progressed quickly and soon became an invaluable resource for both Canadian and international women. Over the years, the “Mac girls” made their mark on the world, including during the two World Wars. Under the leadership of directors Mary Watson during the First World War, and Olive Cruikshank during part of the Second World War, the Macdonald Institute supported the war effort in several ways. These included adapting curricula to the exigencies of wartime, and sending material overseas. The Macdonald Institute initially remained open during the Second World War, yet in 1941, standard classes ceased for five years as the Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF) No. 4 Wireless School took control of the Institute’s buildings and property. Throughout this period of closure, women arrived to live and attend classes at the Wireless School as part of the RCAF’s Women’s Division and School of Cookery. Throughout the two World Wars, women associated with the Macdonald Institute and the No. 4 Wireless School, including students, graduates, instructors, and members of the Women’s Division, variously involved themselves with the war effort. The activities of the Macdonald Institute, and of the No. 4 Wireless School, afford an opportunity to examine how women’s work and education was viewed, deployed, and reallocated throughout the two World Wars.
{"title":"Mac at war: Women’s work and education at the Macdonald Institute during the First and Second World Wars","authors":"Tasha A. Falconer","doi":"10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3818","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3818","url":null,"abstract":"In 1903, the Macdonald Institute opened in Guelph with the stated aim of training rural women in home economics and domestic science. Part of the Ontario Agriculture College (OAC), the school progressed quickly and soon became an invaluable resource for both Canadian and international women. Over the years, the “Mac girls” made their mark on the world, including during the two World Wars. Under the leadership of directors Mary Watson during the First World War, and Olive Cruikshank during part of the Second World War, the Macdonald Institute supported the war effort in several ways. These included adapting curricula to the exigencies of wartime, and sending material overseas. The Macdonald Institute initially remained open during the Second World War, yet in 1941, standard classes ceased for five years as the Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF) No. 4 Wireless School took control of the Institute’s buildings and property. Throughout this period of closure, women arrived to live and attend classes at the Wireless School as part of the RCAF’s Women’s Division and School of Cookery. Throughout the two World Wars, women associated with the Macdonald Institute and the No. 4 Wireless School, including students, graduates, instructors, and members of the Women’s Division, variously involved themselves with the war effort. The activities of the Macdonald Institute, and of the No. 4 Wireless School, afford an opportunity to examine how women’s work and education was viewed, deployed, and reallocated throughout the two World Wars.","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131134099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The mitochondria contained in eukaryotic cells have their own DNA, and heritable mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can cause a variety of disorders in humans. A new therapy, mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), is currently being developed to address these mitochondrial disorders by eliminating the mutated mtDNA from the germline. The two main MRT techniques are pronuclear transfer, conducted in the zygote after fertilization, and spindle-chromosomal complex transfer, conducted in the oocyte before fertilization. In pronuclear transfer, the pronuclei from a zygote affected by a mtDNA mutation are transferred to an enucleated normal zygote. In spindle-chromosomal complex transfer, the genetic material from an oocyte affected by a mtDNA mutation is inserted into the cytoplasm of a donor oocyte that contains healthy mitochondria. A third method, polar body genome transfer, attempts to increase the efficiency of the above techniques by using polar bodies to supply the genetic material. While MRT is legally and ethically controversial, it has recently been implemented successfully in a clinical setting.
{"title":"Mitochondrial replacement therapy and the “three parent baby”","authors":"S. Tai","doi":"10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3800","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3800","url":null,"abstract":"The mitochondria contained in eukaryotic cells have their own DNA, and heritable mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can cause a variety of disorders in humans. A new therapy, mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), is currently being developed to address these mitochondrial disorders by eliminating the mutated mtDNA from the germline. The two main MRT techniques are pronuclear transfer, conducted in the zygote after fertilization, and spindle-chromosomal complex transfer, conducted in the oocyte before fertilization. In pronuclear transfer, the pronuclei from a zygote affected by a mtDNA mutation are transferred to an enucleated normal zygote. In spindle-chromosomal complex transfer, the genetic material from an oocyte affected by a mtDNA mutation is inserted into the cytoplasm of a donor oocyte that contains healthy mitochondria. A third method, polar body genome transfer, attempts to increase the efficiency of the above techniques by using polar bodies to supply the genetic material. While MRT is legally and ethically controversial, it has recently been implemented successfully in a clinical setting.","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126797506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Helmers, A. Platek, M. Ponte, Natalie Secen, K. Cottenie
This study quantified the impact of human activity on aquatic and shoreline plant species richness. We hypothesized that human activity at the shoreline would negatively impact plant species richness and that the extent of the impact would depend on the intensity of human activity. To test this, we sampled 11 lakes in Algonquin Provincial Park, of which five permitted motorboat access, and five permitted canoe access and prohibited motorboat access. The remaining lake, which had no designated access point for boats and was only accessible to researchers, acted as a control. To assess the impact of anthropogenic disturbance at each lake, we measured plant species richness in three 10 m by 2 m plots: a first plot at the access point, assumed to be the site of highest disturbance; a second at the site of intermediate disturbance, 30 m down shore from the access point; and a third at the site of lowest disturbance, 60 m down shore from the access point. We found a significant negative relationship between the level of disturbance and plant species richness, both in the motorboat-accessible and canoe access-only lakes. The control lake exhibited no correlation between disturbance level and plant species richness. However, there was no significant difference between motorboat-accessible and canoe access-only lakes in the relationship between disturbance level and plant species richness. Overall, this study highlights the consequences of anthropogenic disturbance on freshwater aquatic and shoreline plant communities, and provides a framework for future management and rehabilitation strategies.
{"title":"The impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on plant species richness in the freshwater lakes of Algonquin Provincial Park","authors":"A. Helmers, A. Platek, M. Ponte, Natalie Secen, K. Cottenie","doi":"10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/SURG.V9I1.3151","url":null,"abstract":"This study quantified the impact of human activity on aquatic and shoreline plant species richness. We hypothesized that human activity at the shoreline would negatively impact plant species richness and that the extent of the impact would depend on the intensity of human activity. To test this, we sampled 11 lakes in Algonquin Provincial Park, of which five permitted motorboat access, and five permitted canoe access and prohibited motorboat access. The remaining lake, which had no designated access point for boats and was only accessible to researchers, acted as a control. To assess the impact of anthropogenic disturbance at each lake, we measured plant species richness in three 10 m by 2 m plots: a first plot at the access point, assumed to be the site of highest disturbance; a second at the site of intermediate disturbance, 30 m down shore from the access point; and a third at the site of lowest disturbance, 60 m down shore from the access point. We found a significant negative relationship between the level of disturbance and plant species richness, both in the motorboat-accessible and canoe access-only lakes. The control lake exhibited no correlation between disturbance level and plant species richness. However, there was no significant difference between motorboat-accessible and canoe access-only lakes in the relationship between disturbance level and plant species richness. Overall, this study highlights the consequences of anthropogenic disturbance on freshwater aquatic and shoreline plant communities, and provides a framework for future management and rehabilitation strategies.","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"185 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126339847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Welcome from the SURG editor-in-chief","authors":"Ellen Song","doi":"10.21083/surg.v8i2.3723","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/surg.v8i2.3723","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130039477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study compares the restorative effects on directed attention functioning following exposure to natural landscape images versus scrambled/distorted landscape images. Attention restoration theory (ART) provides an analysis of the stimuli and environment required for restoration of cognitive fatigue. According to ART, nature employs attention through a bottom-up process in which intrinsically fascinating stimuli from the natural environment itself modestly dominate attention. This allows the mechanisms responsible for top-down processing, which is necessary for directed attention, to recover and replenish. Unlike natural environments, urban environments employ attention through bottom-up stimulation, which forces one to overcome the stimulation using directed attention, thus not allowing for the recovery of directed attention mechanisms. This study looks into whether solely visual stimulation of natural environments is adequate for the restoration of directed attention mechanisms as measured with the “Attention Test” application. The mean completion time on the Attention Test game was significantly lower in the nature image group (M = 54.33) when compared to the scrambled image group (M = 62.04), thus validating the visual aspect of ART.
{"title":"The reduction of directed attention fatigue through exposure to visual nature stimuli: Exploring a natural therapy for fatigue","authors":"M. Varkovetski","doi":"10.21083/SURG.V8I2.3057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21083/SURG.V8I2.3057","url":null,"abstract":"This study compares the restorative effects on directed attention functioning following exposure to natural landscape images versus scrambled/distorted landscape images. Attention restoration theory (ART) provides an analysis of the stimuli and environment required for restoration of cognitive fatigue. According to ART, nature employs attention through a bottom-up process in which intrinsically fascinating stimuli from the natural environment itself modestly dominate attention. This allows the mechanisms responsible for top-down processing, which is necessary for directed attention, to recover and replenish. Unlike natural environments, urban environments employ attention through bottom-up stimulation, which forces one to overcome the stimulation using directed attention, thus not allowing for the recovery of directed attention mechanisms. This study looks into whether solely visual stimulation of natural environments is adequate for the restoration of directed attention mechanisms as measured with the “Attention Test” application. The mean completion time on the Attention Test game was significantly lower in the nature image group (M = 54.33) when compared to the scrambled image group (M = 62.04), thus validating the visual aspect of ART.","PeriodicalId":413751,"journal":{"name":"Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128327588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：