Students in college are constantly required to use directed attention (i.e., effortful focus) for hours of lectures and assignments. Therefore, they should consider how effective different rest activities are at recovering their ability to concentrate on work. Prior research has suggested that both time in nature and deep breathing may help students restore and maintain cognitive functioning and reduce stress. My thesis compared three different relaxation approaches: nature immersion, deep breathing, and relaxing on one's own to assess which would be the most beneficial for cognitive functioning. I measured one's ability to engage in focused attention and general stress over the experimental sessions. I expect that directed attention will improve the most after the nature immersion exercise, but that stress will decrease the most after the deep breathing exercise. If this is supported by my data, the findings will be valuable to Middlebury students who have ample opportunity to be surrounded by nature.
