The Sensory Experience of Nature and its Impact on Post-Secondary Students’ Mental Health
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In this qualitative study, grounded in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and informed by sensory and arts-based methods, I explore the relationship between sensory perceptions of nature and mental well-being among post-secondary students self-reporting anxiety and/or depression. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and Stress Reduction Theory (SRT), and acknowledging traditional nature-based practices, I investigate how six University of Calgary students perceive and interpret their experiences of mental health on a sensory path in an urban green space. Findings reveal nature's multifaceted restorative potential, fostering inspiration, creativity, emotional regulation, and mindful engagement. Through this study, I explore the individual nature of sensory experiences and the influence of sociocultural factors on students' access to and experiences of nature. This research contributes to the literature by emphasizing the mental health benefits of nature experiences, the subjective nature of sensory engagement, and the impact of sociocultural factors on student well-being. I conclude this thesis with potential recommendations for Canadian universities to enhance student well-being through nature engagement.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.004 | 0.005 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.005 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".