What are the effects of biophilic design interventions on university students' cognitive performance?

A recent study uses a virtual reality office environment to evaluate the impact of indoor green and outdoor green on students in university buildings.

The research focused on three different office layouts and three acoustic scenarios, and resulted in the main findings:

• Increase in cognitive performance: exposure to natural sounds significantly improved working memory, inhibition, and task-switching performance compared to traffic noise.

• Visual and acoustic Interactions: indoor green layout combined with natural sounds produced the best cognitive outcomes, highlighting the importance of holistic biophilic design.

These findings underscore the potential of green elements to enhance cognitive performance and well-being in educational settings.