Immersion in nature is thought to benefit mental health and improve cognitive performance; however, the underlying neural mechanisms of these benefits are relatively unknown. This talk will present data from series of randomized controlled trials exploring the impact of immersion in nature on brain activity. In one study, healthy participants were randomized to either walk in nature or in an urban environment. We measured self-reported mood, behavioral performance, and brain activity before and after the walk using electroencephalography (EEG). In a follow-up study, hospital patients were immersed in virtual reality nature or urban environments while brain activity was recorded with intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG). Together, these two studies provide rich information regarding both cortical and subcortical neural response to immersion in nature. By identifying the pathways through which nature influences brain functioning, we can develop more effective, targeted interventions to improve mental and cognitive health.

Humans process vast amounts of visual information, shifting gaze about three times per second. Beyond external stimuli, memory plays a key role in directing our gaze. In this talk, I will focus on the applied implications of this mechanism, particularly in detecting concealed memories. By using eye tracking, we can identify when individuals are familiar with objects and venues, even unintentionally. This has promising applications in criminal investigations, where traditional methods may fail. I will compare eye tracking to conventional approaches, showing how it offers a powerful tool for detecting hidden knowledge or memories related to crime scenes.

Despite being aware of various impacts of memory failings, such as false memories, research has consistently demonstrated that people are still susceptible to these phenomena. Prominent authors within memory, have explored people’s common beliefs about the properties of memory and found a great discrepancy between what people believed about common memory aspects (e.g., eyewitness fallibility). The current study intends to extend on this research and explore people’s expectations of their performance in an inattentional blindness task. Within a course on cognitive psychology, students completed a dynamic bounce inattentional blindness task twice over 2 months. Despite knowledge of the paradigm, 30% of participants still experienced inattentional blindness at the second testing session, with some experiencing in both instances. This has implications for researchers who tend to screen out participants with knowledge of the paradigm. As well for those applied settings, when considering limitations and failures of perception, attention, and memory.

Mnemonic benefits of survival processing and animacy have both been discussed as demonstrations of the adaptive nature of human memory. We investigated whether survival processing effects (better recall of information processed with respect to its relevance for survival) and animacy effects (better recall of animate compared to inanimate entities) are correlated or independent phenomena. Experiment 1 manipulated survival processing and animacy experimentally in a 2 x 2 mixed design and assessed whether both effects combine additively or interactively after carefully controlling for differences in word materials between experimental conditions. Experiment 2 was a conceptual replication in which both factors were manipulated within-subjects, allowing to assess the correlation between survival processing and animacy effects across individuals in addition. We discuss theoretical implications of the results with respect to the mechanisms that underly survival processing and animacy effects.