The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting with Nature - Article Example

The paper “The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting with Nature by Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan" is a thoughtful version of an article on psychology. The experimental design usually refers to how the participants are allocated to different situations or conditions in an experiment. The best-probable way to have an experimental design is to divide the people into experimental and control groups. During the study, change is usually made on the experimental group only and not the control group.

The three types of experimental designs commonly used are; independent measures, repeated measures and matched pairs.Experiment 11. It is a pre-experimental design; the pre-experimental design fits in because all the experimental steps were followed, but there was no control group. In that, a single group like in this case were the 38 male and female students who participated in the experiment and were given treatment but there was no other parallel group that was involved in the study without being exposed to the treatment (Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan, 2008).

The subtype of the experiment was one group pre-test post-test study. There was a pre-test done to determine the baseline scores of the participants then the participants were given treatment, and the results obtained. The main goal of this is to determine whether the treatment offered had any effect and could change the outcome. The method employed gives a clue whether the alteration in the dependent variable secondary to the treatment. What only the experiment can’t show is if the change could have occurred even without the application of the independent variable or treatment.2. The independent variable in the experiment is the environment including the displayed pictures, natural environmental setting, and urban setting; this is so because the researcher manipulated different environmental setting and exposed the participants while monitoring their cognitive function.

The environments changed were ranging from natural via urban setting to the moving picture. It provided a good environment to study the participant’s mood and perceptions in different situations. In experimental design, the independent variable is manipulated to see if it has got any effect on the dependent variable in the long run. The different environments that the participants were exposed led to the different cognitive function of the clients, this is quantified by the results that were generated in different environmental settings (Berman et al., 2008).3.

The dependent variables were executive function, alerting and cognitive performance (the mood) of the participant; this is because the participant’s cognitive domains depending on the manipulated environment that was being changed at different occasions. The dependent variable provides a good insight into how the participant responds when treatment is offered in the experimental design. The dependent variable does respond to the independent variable. It is the one that is being measured in the experiment.

In this experiment, the data that was measured was the perception and the cognitive domain of the participants. Indeed in both of the experiments the results achieved from the dependent variables provided a good interpretation on relating the cognitive function, executive function and alertness in different environmental settings.In summation, the experimental design done was able to provide true data. Both variables were correctly manipulated for proper results.