Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Environmental Factors on Impulsivity & Decision Making

Publication Date

Fall 11-2023

College

Sciences and Mathematics, College of

Department

Psychological Science, Department of

SURS Faculty Advisor

Adam Smiley

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Abstract

The idea of our environments and how they impact our level of impulsivity has been studied extensively in the field of psychology. Past studies have shown that exposure to natural environments can decrease impulsivity in decision-making (Berry et al., 2020) and expansion of space perception (Repke et al., 2018). In the few studies measuring the effects of environment and the impact it has on impulsivity, there has generally been an effect such that exposure to nature lowers impulsivity. For our research, we wanted to expand on this past research and test the effects of environments in a video form and the impact they have on impulsivity in decision- making. We hypothesized that participants engaging with a video of a mindful (i.e, calming nature) environment prior to completing impulsive tasks will show less impulsivity compared to participants who engage with a video of a highly stimulated (i.e, busy city) environment or no video engagement at all. The participant sample is introductory psychology students who participated for class credit. Participants were randomly split into three groups and given a video of nature or a busy city or they were given no video to watch. After watching the video, participants took the Barratt’s Impulsivity Scale and were then asked how they felt after the video. Participants then recorded the number they got on the Barratt’s scale into Qualtrics. Results will be presented at SURS.

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