2.3. Procedures
Once the prospective participants indicated their interest in the study, a research assistant corresponded with them through email to verify their eligibility and to schedule a convenient time for a one-hour virtual Zoom meeting (Zoom Video Communications, San Jose, CA, USA). All virtual sessions were recorded. The research assistant also gave the participants instructions prior to their experimental session, which indicated that participants should schedule their session immediately after a four-hour work period, avoid taking a break during the last hour of their work period, and wear comfortable clothes and shoes for participation. Prior to the experimental session, each participant completed a baseline demographic survey.The study protocol is summarized in Participants were then given a twenty-minute work break that comprised the experimental portion of the pilot study. The research assistant referred to a spreadsheet that contained the participant’s ID number, along with a randomly generated number that corresponded to an experimental condition. The first condition was the control condition, in which the participant had no physical activity and no nature contact. They were instructed to sit quietly for twenty minutes. The second condition involved ten minutes of light physical activity (i.e., walking in place) and ten minutes of low-fidelity virtual nature contact (i.e., watching a slideshow on their desktop computer with black-and-white screenshots of the virtual reality nature environment; see Next, participants were given another seven minutes to return to the nine-dot problem, which simulated the experience of returning to a mentally demanding work task following a break. After the final problem-solving task, participants were given three minutes to complete a final measure of state well-being. Participants were thanked for their time, and the experimental session concluded. At this point, the Zoom recording was stopped, and the Zoom meeting was ended. Participants received a USD 20 electronic Amazon gift card as a participation incentive.