Abstract:

Classroom design influences students' achievement. Many variables have been studied. However, the effect of views to nature is not known, despite evidence that in other domains it has a significant emotional influence. The aim of the present article is to quantify the effect of the degree of openness of the classroom to nature on cognitive performance. To tackle it, six university classrooms were set up in virtual reality with the variable degree of openness to a green area (with no openings, with one lateral opening, with two lateral openings, with three lateral openings, with four lateral openings, and completely open) and a sample of 24 participants performed psychological tests of attention in them. The results show that there are significant differences in the errors made in the attention test between the different scenarios studied: a classroom with four lateral openings results in significantly more errors being made, while completely open classrooms with two and three openings result in fewer errors. It is concluded that students' attentional performance can be positively and negatively influenced depending on the degree of openness of the classroom to the outside. However, the results suggest a relatively constant behavior of the variable, so that the architects involved in its design have some flexibility. This work may be useful for researchers in education and the different agents involved in the design and organization of university classrooms.

Keywords:

Attention, nature, classroom, university, architecture.