The impact of built and natural environments on working memory - A systematic literature review

This systematic literature review examines the complex relationship between the physical environment and working memory essential for everyday life. As urbanization accelerates and the built environment becomes more complex, impacting natural environments as well, understanding how environmental factors influence working memory is becoming increasingly critical. This review synthesizes findings from 34 empirical studies investigating the effects of different environmental settings, ranging from urban environments to natural landscapes on working memory performance or development. We categorize these findings into three key themes that reflect how this relation has been studied: Dynamic Environmental Exposure, which refers to settings where individuals actively engage with their surroundings; Passive Environmental Exposure, which encompasses studies where participants remain stationary while being exposed to environmental stimuli; and Neighborhood Characteristics, which include broader aspects of our living environments that shape daily experiences and may influence working memory over extended periods. The review discusses the findings with reference to ecological validity of experimental setups, the challenge of describing physical settings, and future implications of the research, while also encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration among architects, urban planners, psychologists, and neuroscientists. This work also contributes to the growing discourse on how the design of our physical settings effects cognition, thereby health and well-being. • Systematic review of 34 studies on the impact of built and natural environments on working memory. • The review identifies three categories of environmental exposure studies: dynamic, passive, and neighborhood-level. • Most research focused on nature exposure; few studies examined built environment features. • Neither maximal complexity nor maximal immersion alone predicts the best working memory outcomes • Untamed or overly chaotic natural settings may not uniformly benefit working memory and can sometimes impair it. • Calls for ecologically valid, interdisciplinary research beyond simple “nature vs. urban” comparisons.