学校と認知心理学の国際ジャーナル
オープンアクセス

概要

Can Exposure to Fascinating Stimuli Affect Memory Performance in Mentally Fatigued People? A study on Encoding and Retrieval

Rita B, Maria Rosa B, Daniele D and Janet D

Exposure to restorative environments can restore attention from mental fatigue. The question arises as to whether this restoration is peculiar to attention or whether it also pertains to memory performance. This study aims to verify whether memory performance can be restored in mentally fatigued people. A week after the baseline assessment, 62 subjects were assigned to an encoding or a retrieval condition. Each condition was made up of two memory assessments on a word free recall and a face recognition task: the first assessment was done after the induction of mental fatigue and the second after exposure to fascinating stimuli. There was no evidence of a restorative effect on the verbal free recall in the encoding or in the retrieval condition. For the recognition task, the significant effect in the retrieval condition implies that exposure to fascinating stimuli affects memory performance, relieving the process of mental fatigue.