This research not only prompts the development of better cognitive and reading models that account for environmental variables
This study demonstrates the impact of weather on reading during driving, offering new insights for cognitive theory by showing how environmental factors shape language processing while in motion.
Specifically, the negative impact of rainy conditions on response times became increasingly pronounced as the task progressed, indicating that prolonged exposure to visual degradation may result in accumulated perceptual fatigue or reduced adaptation efficiency. Importantly, frequency effects remained stable over time, suggesting that lexical familiarity consistently facilitates word recognition regardless of task progression.
Task performance changed over time, with slight accuracy gains and increasingly slower responses in rain, suggesting accumulating perceptual fatigue, while stable frequency effects showed that lexical familiarity consistently aided recognition throughout the task.
All in all, these results suggest that drivers may be more susceptible to distractions and slower in processing linguistic information during rainy conditions
Overall, the findings show that rainy conditions slow drivers' processing of written information, underscoring the need for adaptive, weather-responsive signage and intelligent transportation systems that enhance visibility, support real-time traffic sign recognition, and improve safety under adverse environmental conditions.
In our study, the perceptual degradation induced by rain may have impaired visual acuity without reaching the threshold necessary to engage top-down lexical compensation, thereby resulting in additive effects between weather and word frequency.
The lack of interaction between weather and word frequency indicates that rain likely disrupts early visual encoding equally for all words, producing independent, additive effects that occur before later lexical frequency processes can engage.
As expected, and in line with preceding research showing consistent frequency effects during single-word recognition [see 41,42], results showed that high-frequency words were recognized more quickly and slightly more accurately than low-frequency ones under dynamic perceptual conditions.
Participants identified high- and low-frequency words on VR traffic signs and, consistent with prior research, recognized high-frequency words faster and slightly more accurately. They also took longer to recognize words in rainy conditions, confirming that adverse weather impairs visibility and slows linguistic processing, mirroring patterns found in both reading research and real-world driving studies.
Together, these findings support the notion that the visual word recognition system is both robust and flexible, adapting dynamically to the level and timing of perceptual constraints.
Adverse weather like rain, fog, snow, and wind impairs visibility and affects drivers’ cognitive functioning, raising accident risk by up to 13% and making it harder to process fast-moving road signs. Because so much written information is read while we’re in motion, understanding how people recognize words under these conditions matters. Yet research shows the visual word recognition system is highly resilient—people can read distorted, rotated, or altered text with only small costs, thanks to flexible letter-detection mechanisms that tolerate substantial visual degradation unless disruptions are extreme.
reaction times were slower in rainy compared to sunny conditions, indicating that adverse weather impairs processing speed but not overall recognition accuracy.
Rainy conditions caused consistent delays in processing speed, showing that weather makes the brain slower at taking in and interpreting information. Participants were 126-139 ms slower during rain, showing a meaningful cognitive delay.
Winter SAD’s onset is associated with the changing of the seasons and the cold weather, being stuck indoors, shorter days and less sunlight exposure. However, Dumler said, there is a correlation between extreme heat and agitation. People on psychiatric medications such as antidepressants or mood stabilizers, for example, may have more difficulty regulating their body’s temperature, she said.
Warm-weather SAD is less common and tends to show up as anxiety, agitation, insomnia, and weight loss, while winter SAD is more tied to fatigue, oversleeping, weight gain, low energy, and social withdrawal. Winter symptoms are driven by shorter days, cold weather, and reduced sunlight, but Dumler notes that extreme heat can increase agitation, especially for people on psychiatric medications that make temperature regulation harder.
Currently, although the impact of weather on happiness has been supported by both theoretical and empirical research, there are still many uncertainties in these findings, which create challenges in creating conditions that enhance happiness for individuals.
Despite strong theoretical and empirical support for weather's influence on happiness, major uncertainties remain due to things such as differing weather factors, the variability of emotional responses across situations, the potential for daily activities to overshadow weather effects, and the scarcity of experimental research needed to establish clear casual relationships.
5.3 Diet
Diet can support well-being. By providing vitamin D through foods, especially in low-slight seasons, incorporating omega-3-rich fatty fish to reduce the risk of depression, eating fresh fruits and vegetables to boost happiness, and taking melatonin supplements when needed can support both mood and sleep regulation.
exposure to sunlight has numerous benefits for improving individual happiness and life satisfaction.
Increasing light exposure, whether through natural sunlight, morning outdoor activities, full-spectrum indoor lighting, light therapy, or even viewing sunlight imagery, can boost life satisfaction, raise vitamin D and serotonin levels, alleviate symptoms of SAD, and improve overall emotional well-being.
Taking a moderate outdoor exercise break during lunch hours significantly benefits an individual’s happiness.
Regular exercise (especially activities like running that boost serotonin and endorphins) can prevent or reduce SAD and significantly improve mood and reduce anxiety, with outdoor or well-lit exercise offering even stronger benefits.
It should be noted that studies across different populations have found significant gender and age differences in SAD symptoms (44, 45), SAD is more prevalent among individuals with a predisposition for deep depression.
Serotonin, a key mood-regulating neurotransmitter, is strongly influenced by sunlight. Its production and receptor activity decrease in low-light conditions, contributing to winter drops in serotonin levels, and the development of SAD, with symptoms varying by age and gender. This demonstrates that reduced light exposure can trigger negative emotional states through lowered serotonin activity.
A study by Cereda et al. (38) pointed out that in winter, reduced sunlight exposure and lower vitamin D levels may induce depressive symptoms in individuals with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), as well as conditions like bipolar disorder.
Vitamin D, which is mainly produced through UVB exposure from sunlight, decreases during cloudy weather and winter, and low vitamin D levels are strongly linked to depression, fatigue, negative emotions, and even greater suicide risk, while supplementation has been shown to improve mood and reduced inflammation. This shows how adequate vitamin D is essential not only for physical health but also for maintaining psychological well-being and life satisfaction.
Studies have shown that melatonin influences the production and release of neurochemicals such as serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins, which are associated with happiness and well-being (36).
Melatonin, a light-sensitive hormone that rises in darkness and regulates the sleep wake cycle, also influences happiness by affecting key mood-related neurochemicals like serotonin and dopamine, and its balance can be disrupted by factors such as artificial light, caffeine, alcohol, and stress, highlighting its important role in both emotional regulation and overall well-being.
Men were more sensitive to temperature changes and preferred cooler weather, while women’s happiness was less influenced by temperature variations.
Weather's effect on well-being varies across individuals, with factors like gender, age, and socioeconomic status shaping sensitivity. For example, studies show men's emotions are more influenced by temperature fluctuations than women's, illustrating how personal characteristics moderate weather's impact on happiness.
sunshine and high temperatures not only contribute to the generation of particulate matter in the air but also facilitate the formation of ozone. In contrast, weather conditions that make people want to stay indoors (e.g., precipitation, low temperatures, and strong winds) are more conducive to fresh air and fewer pollutants in the atmosphere.
Favorable weather like sunshine, warmth, low humidity, and light winds encourage outdoor activity but also promote the formation and stagnation of pollutants, while less pleasant conditions like rain, cold, or strong winds tend to clean the air, with events like typhoons and heavy rainfall significantly improving air quality.
This highlights the significant role that climate events play in shaping long-term psychological well-being, especially as individuals and communities face an increasingly unpredictable climate.
Past experiences with extreme weather damage and worries about future climate change can jointly reduce current well-being, showing that both lived trauma and ongoing uncertainty contribute to long-term emotional strain in an increasingly unpredictable climate.
A study involving 226,808 Puerto Rican adolescents revealed that 5 to 9 months after the hurricane, participants reported increased levels of negative emotions such as depression (65). Similarly, following Hurricane Katrina, a study of 325 adolescents who experienced the storm found that participants generally showed signs of anxiety and other negative emotions (66).
EWEs like hurricanes and wildfires significantly harm emotional well-being, with studies showing that adolescents and adults exposed to disasters such as Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Katrina, and major wildfires experience heightened levels of depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems months after the events.
The interactions between EWEs and human health are complex and can be categorized into two main types: (1) direct impacts, which result from extreme physical climate phenomena such as storms or floods, and (2) indirect impacts, which typically arise from environmental changes, such as water quality deterioration or land use changes, that affect biogeophysical processes (63, 64).
Extreme weather events (EWEs), made more frequent and severe due to global warming, create both direct impacts (like storms, floods, and heatwaves), and indirect impacts (such as degraded water quality and land-use changes), all of which interact with social and demographic factors to shape and often worsen mental health and overall well-being.
The degree of air pollution can significantly influence individual schedules and life satisfaction, especially for vulnerable groups such as children, the older adult, and those with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions.
Large-scale social media analyses and other studies show that higher air pollution reliably lowers happiness—even beyond its physical health effects—likely due to aesthetic unpleasantness, sensory discomfort, and health-related anxieties, with especially strong impacts on vulnerable groups such as children, older adults, and people with respiratory or heart conditions.
Yuan et al. (59) demonstrated a significant negative correlation between the Air Quality Index (AQI) and individuals’ life satisfaction, and Song et al. (58) found a positive correlation between urban smog levels and subjective happiness.
Life satisfaction is strongly and consistently harmed by poor air quality, with most studies showing that pollutants like CO₂, NO₂, PM10, and SO₂ lower perceived quality of life, and research linking higher AQI and urban smog to reduced well-being, though some results may be influenced by factors such as income differences across cities.
Their findings indicated a negative correlation between air pollution and hedonic well-being, as well as a positive correlation with the incidence of depression symptoms. However, no significant association was found between air pollution and life satisfaction.
Air quality strongly influences both physical and psychological well-being, with many studies showing that higher pollution levels reduce happiness and increase depression symptoms, though evidence is mixed regarding whether air pollution affects life satisfaction, suggesting its emotional impact may be stronger than its effect on cognitive evaluations of well-being.
This suggests that calmer wind conditions are associated with higher life satisfaction, particularly among women.
Lower wind speeds are linked to higher life satisfaction, especially for women, with research showing that a one–standard deviation drop in wind speed significantly increases reported life satisfaction.
They found that precipitation in January had a significant negative correlation with happiness, indicating that rain was associated with lower levels of well-being.
Cloud cover, rain, humidity, and wind speed generally reduce subjective well-being, with studies showing that cloudy or rainy days, high humidity, and related conditions consistently correlate with lower happiness and more negative emotional states.
This suggests that while environmental factors like temperature may influence well-being, their effects might be overshadowed by individual characteristics.
Research shows that high temperatures generally reduce life satisfaction and that people in hotter climates report lower happiness than those in cooler regions, but findings vary, as some studies suggest temperature effects disappear when individual traits are accounted for, highlighting that temperature can influence well-being, yet its impact may be overshadowed by personal characteristics and context.
The study also showed that cooler temperatures helped reduce sadness and depression.
Studies using large-scale Twitter data and daily diary reports show that well-being drops sharply at temperatures above 70°F (especially when paired with high humidity), while cooler temperatures (around 10–15°C) are linked to higher happiness and reduced sadness, with hourly temperature changes exerting a stronger emotional impact than daily averages.
Specifically, when temperatures exceeded 70°F (21°C), individuals reported reduced positive emotions (e.g., joy, pleasure), increased negative emotions (e.g., stress, anger), and more fatigue (e.g., tiredness, lack of energy), all of which were linked to a decrease in subjective well-being. This effect was particularly pronounced in individuals with lower education levels and older age groups.
Temperature strongly influences well-being, with research showing a non-linear pattern where both extreme heat and extreme cold reduce happiness; studies indicate that temperatures above about 70°F (21°C) lead to lower positive emotions, higher stress and fatigue, and overall reduced life satisfaction, especially among older adults and individuals with lower education levels.
Previous research into ipRGC-influenced light (IIL) responses indicates that both illuminance and correlated color temperature (CCT) affect people’s well-being (15). Moreover, illuminance and CCT can also affect occupants’ satisfaction with and comfort in the environment (16, 17), improved satisfaction with environmental conditions is associated with improved daily life satisfaction.
Overall, sunlight and other light characteristics, such as illuminance and color temperature, significantly influence happiness, emotional health, and life satisfaction, with brighter and more comfortable lighting improving well-being and environmental satisfaction, though these effects are moderated by individual behaviors and contextual factors, making the relationship complex and multifaceted.
In these studies, higher IQ levels were associated with a reduced positive impact of sunlight on happiness (Add Health study, U.S., 1994–2008).
The effects of sunlight on emotions and life satisfaction vary across individuals and contexts, with factors like increased outdoor activity and personal traits—including intelligence—modifying how strongly sunlight boosts happiness, demonstrating that light’s influence on well-being is not universal but shaped by individual differences.
The effect of sunlight on mood is also reflected in the fact that light can either enhance or reduce feelings of joy and sadness, depending on its timing and intensity. Denissen et al. (12) found that sunshine increases both positive and negative emotions, indicating that the relationship between sunlight and mood is complex and not purely beneficial.
Light conditions strongly influence well-being by shaping emotional states and life satisfaction, with sunlight generally improving mood but poorly timed or insufficient light contributing to negative emotions, and research shows that sunlight can intensify both positive and negative feelings, highlighting a complex, not purely positive, relationship between light exposure and emotional experience.
The positive effect of sunlight on life satisfaction may be attributed to both its direct influence on mood and the fact that people are more likely to engage in outdoor activities when the weather is sunny, further contributing to well-being. However, studies like those by Buscha (56) have suggested that exposure to sunlight may have a negligible effect on well-being, particularly in cases where other factors, such as personal preferences or environmental stressors, influence mood more strongly.
Sunlight generally enhances life satisfaction—people report feeling more satisfied on sunny, clear days, partly because sunlight boosts mood and encourages outdoor activity—but some research shows this effect can be minimal when personal preferences or other environmental stressors play a stronger role in shaping well-being.
As a result, environmental psychology often considers how these multidimensional weather factors work together to shape an individual’s emotional state, social behavior, and the quality of social interactions, ultimately impacting subjective well-being.
Overall, weather conditions such as light, temperature, rainfall, humidity, air quality, and wind speed directly influence well-being by shaping physiological responses, emotional states, and social behaviors; factors like sunlight and comfortable temperatures generally promote positive emotions, while gloomy weather, high humidity, poor air quality, and strong winds can trigger negative feelings or stress, and together these multidimensional weather elements interact to shape mental health, daily behavior, and overall subjective well-being.
The above theories provide profound insights into how weather influences well-being through physiological, emotional, and cognitive pathways, revealing the complex relationship between weather conditions and individual well-being.
These theories show that weather influences well-being through interconnected physiological, emotional, and cognitive processes rooted in both basic needs and evolutionary history.
When individuals are in a non-threatening environment, they naturally produce positive emotional responses. These responses further influence attention, physiological reactions, and behavior, thereby enhancing well-being (6).
Evolutionary psychology explains that humans are naturally inclined to feel positive in safe, non-threatening natural environments, meaning favorable weather conditions automatically boost emotional and physiological well-being.
As a key component of the natural environment, weather conditions can significantly influence an individual’s emotions and overall well-being. Weather not only affects people’s living conditions and external environmental settings but can also impact happiness by altering emotional states.
Maslow’s theory and Lyubomirsky’s happiness model suggest that pleasant weather fulfills basic needs and contributes to the environmental portion of well-being, thereby directly influencing emotions and overall happiness.
The affective events theory suggests that an individual’s emotional state is often directly influenced by life events, with weather, as an inescapable external variable in daily life, typically representing the “atmospheric conditions” of daily living.
Environmental psychology offers a key framework for understanding how weather—through factors like temperature, sunlight, precipitation, and air quality—affects emotional and cognitive well-being, but inconsistent findings across studies show that these effects depend not only on objective weather conditions but also on individual physiological, psychological, and social differences.
Well-being is not only the core pursuit of human life but also an important predictor of various positive life outcomes, such as longevity, creativity, quality of interpersonal relationships, and work efficiency (1).
Well-being is deeply intertwined with weather conditions, a relationship long noted in daily life and literature. Modern research on this topic has rapidly expanded, revealing through multidisciplinary studies how weather influences well-being via physiological, psychological, and social pathways.
Currently,
Weather conditions influence well-being through a complex mix of direct environmental effects and indirect impacts on physiology, mood, and social behavior, and this paper reviews the theory, evidence, and mechanisms behind those relationships to guide future research and well-being improvement.
When a Change in Environment Is Not Possible
When major life changes aren't possible, you can still support your mental health by adjusting your environment by using lights, colors, scents, sounds, organization, and healthy emotional boundaries to regulate your mood and create distance from toxic dynamics, while seeking safety and support if abuse is present.
Environmental Changes That Can Improve Mental Health
Small, doable changes in your physical and social environment, like decluttering, adding light, reducing noise, strengthening supportive relationships, and stepping back from harmful ones can significantly improve your mental health and build momentum for bigger shifts.
Identifying If Environmental Change Is Needed
Recognizing how your environment affects your emotions allows you to make small adjustments or temporary changes to test whether a bigger shift is needed, but if altering your surroundings or relationships isn't enough, professional treatment may still be necessary.
How Perception Impacts Mental Health
Because perception of an environment can shape mental well-being as much as the environment itself, reframing negative beliefs, practicing gratitude, making small comforting changes, and processing emotions can help improve mental health even when the external situation cannot be changed.
Social Environment and Mental Health
A person's social environment, including relationships, social support, socioeconomic factors, and exposure to conflict or abuse, strongly shapes mental health, with healthy connections promoting resilience and coping, while harmful relationships increases the risk of stress, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.
School Environment and Mental Health
Students' learning environment significantly influences mental health, with things such as a sense of belonging, safety, and strong school support systems improving well-being, while bullying, inadequate instructional support, and poor teaching training or academic structure can contribute to negative mental health outcomes.
Work Environment and Mental Health
Because people spend over half of their waking hours at work, the work environment–including factors like high demands, stress, bullying, low support, lack of control, and feeling undervalued–plays a major role in increasing the risk of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
Home Environment
The home environment, such as physical conditions of the home, community factors, and exposures such as crime, climate, pollution, toxins, environmental racism, and poverty significantly shapes mental health by influencing stress levels, safety, and overall psychological well-being.
Familiarity:
Unfamiliar or new or changing situations can sometimes trigger anxiety. However, when an environment has positive associations, connections and uplifting moods can be created.
Culture and values:
Sometimes, when cultures or values are not shared between people, one can feel isolated and even depressed. But sometimes, this differences can also make one more aware and accepting.
People:
Negative types of communication, arguments, and people who cause negative feelings to an individual can cause stress. However, people who are trusted or deemed as "safe" bring a feeling of calmness.
Sensory:
Anything that can be perceived through the senses has the ability to impact how one feels.
Aesthetics:
Clutter can induce stress, while tidy areas can calm. Meaningful colors and objects can also improve mood.
Research on children supports this, noting that children raised in adverse environments tend to have hindered brain development, increasing their risk of memory issues, learning difficulties, and behavioral problems.
This supports Alter's point in Chapter 8 of Drunk Tank Pink.
Exposure to different environments can physically affect the neural pathways in the brain that are related to cognitive function, mood regulation, and stress.
Neuroscience shows that environmental factors can physically affect brain functions.
5. Conclusion
While nature is known to improve health, this study shows that older students and environmental students experience stronger restorative benefits, emphasizing stress recovery depends on both personal background and environmental factors. Future research should explore how different settings can be used to enhance student well-being and campus designs.
4.4 Limitations
Study's findings are limited by narrow participant sample, reliance on visual-only stimuli, lack of control for landscape openness, restricted environmental scenarios, and absence of true physiological baseline. Future research should include more diverse participants, multi-sensory or real world environments, and stronger methodological controls
4.3 Partial landscape specificity
Although deserts usually offer low restorative benefits due to evolutionary survival instincts, environmental majors experience greater recovery in desert environments because their education, familiarity, and ecological understanding overrides their innate avoidance. Again, showing that restoration depends not just on the environment bur also the viewers background and learned experiences.
4.2.2 The effects of landscape type on fatigue recovery various among students with different major.
Environmental majors experience stronger physical and psychological recovery from natural environments than non-majors because of their education, familiarity, ecological awareness, and emotional connection to nature enhances their ability to relax and recover. Suggests that nature based mental health interventions should account for students' backgrounds and environmental values
4. Discussion
Overall, gender didn't significantly influence restoration (H1 not supported), but juniors (H2 supported) and environmental majors (H3 partially supported) showed notably stronger physiological and psychological recovery from natural landscapes than freshmen and non-majors.
4.2.1 Juniors exhibit faster recovery and more positive preference than freshmen.
Juniors experience stronger psychological and physical restoration from natural environments than freshman, possibly due to the fact that they are older, more emotionally mature, have better coping skills and social support, and therefore better able to benefit from nature. Suggests that age and developmental stage should guide how schools design nature-based mental health programs.
3.2 Psychological response of viewing different landscape types
Psychological restoration varies by landscape type and by viewer characteristics: • lawn scenes are the most mentally restorative and deserts are the least – from most to least restorative: Grass/Lawn, Waterscapes, Forest, Plants, Field, Mountains, Artificial Nature, Deserts • gender does not significantly affect psychological restoration • juniors report stronger psychological recovery than freshmen • environmental majors consistently experience higher psychological restoration than non-majors
3.3 Visual preference analysis
Visual preferences depend on the type of landscape and viewer's background: • waterscapes are the most preferred, and deserts are the least • gender does not influence preference • juniors prefer lawn and artificial environments more than freshmen • landscape majors show higher preference for artificial environments than non-majors
Heart rate.
Heart rate recovery depends on who the viewer is: • females exhibit in lawn and artificial landscapes • juniors show dramatically stronger HR restoration across almost all landscape types compared to freshmen • environmental majors recover more deeply, especially in forest or artificial nature scenes
Systolic blood pressure.
Gender and grade level had no effect on systolic BP recovery. The only major-related difference was that landscape/environmental majors showed a significantly larger SBP reduction than non-environment majors when viewing desert landscapes, but not for any other landscape type.
3.1 Physiological response of viewing different landscape types
This study shows that visual exposure to natural environments, especially forests and water, produces measurable physiological relaxation: • nature images lower systolic BP • forest images lower diastolic BP • water images lower HR Suggests that different types of natural scenes have different calming effects, and body overall responds physiologically to nature in ways that promote relaxation and reduce stress.
This study proposes the following hypotheses: (H1) Females prefer and benefit more from sheltered landscapes like forests or artificial settings, while males favor and gain greater restoration from open, functional, and exploratory landscapes. (H2) Juniors, facing higher academic stress, experience greater restorative effects than freshmen. (H3) Landscape majors, with greater awareness of landscape elements, prefer and benefit more from complex, element-rich landscapes, while non-landscape majors favor modern, simple, and functional spaces.
Hypotheses presented for study.