Marc Berman

The affective benefits of nature exposure: What's nature got to do with it?

Journal of Environmental Psychology · 2020 · 122 citations

Criterion validity and relationships between alternative hierarchical dimensional models of general and specific psychopathology.

Journal of Abnormal Psychology · 2020 · 71 citations

(see record 2020-72912-001). In the article (http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/abn0000601), an acknowledgment is missing from the author note. The missing acknowledgement is included in the erratum.] Psychopathology can be viewed as a hierarchy of correlated dimensions. Many studies have supported this conceptualization, but they have used alternative statistical models with differing interpretations. In bifactor models, every symptom loads on both the general factor and 1 specific factor (e.g., interna…

Distinguishing cognitive effort and working memory load using scale-invariance and alpha suppression in EEG

NeuroImage · 2020 · 68 citations

Despite being intuitive, cognitive effort has proven difficult to define quantitatively. Here, we proposed to study cognitive effort by investigating the degree to which the brain deviates from its default state, where brain activity is scale-invariant. Specifically, we measured such deviations by examining changes in scale-invariance of brain activity as a function of task difficulty and posited suppression of scale-invariance as a proxy for exertion of cognitive effort. While there is some fMR…

Variable and dynamic associations between hot weather, thermal comfort, and individuals’ emotional states during summertime

BMC Psychology · 2024-09-27 · 14 citations

The effects of heat exposure on negative affect are thought to be central to the observed relationships between hot summer days and deleterious outcomes, such as violent crime or mental health crises. As these relationships are likely to be magnified by the effects of climate change, a better understanding of how consistent or variable the effects of hot weather on affective states is required. The current work combines data gathered from an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study on individ…

The affective, cognitive, and social benefits of interacting with nature

Journal of Consumer Psychology · 2025-04-24 · 10 citations

Abstract The surrounding environment influences how people feel, think, and behave. This effect is apparent when examining the multitude of ways interactions with natural environments impact people psychologically. In this Research Dialogue, we discuss work by ourselves and others that demonstrate the benefits of spending time in nature or interacting with natural stimuli, across three psychological domains. First, we discuss affective benefits, such as improved mood and decreased stress and rum…