Unveiling biophilia in children using active silence training: an experimental approach
Authors
Giuseppe Barbiero
Laboratorio di Ecologia Affettiva, Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Sezione di Studi Transdisciplinari Avanzati, Università della Valle d’Aosta, Aosta; IRIS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Sustainability, Università degli studi di Torino
Rita Berto
Facoltà di Filosofia, Pedagogia e Psicologia, Università degli studi di Verona; Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università degli studi di Padova, Padova,
Dinajara Doju Freire
Dojo Sanrin, Fossano
Maria Ferrando
IRIS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Sustainability, Università degli studi di Torino
Elena Camino
IRIS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Sustainability, Università degli studi di Torino
Biophilia – the innate tendency of human beings to focus on and to affiliate with natural life emotionally – occurs spontaneously in school children. In this study we hypothesized that the development of biophilia is facilitated by an active silence training (AST). In AST silent observation is used as a means to achieve self-knowledge, while games are used as a way of evoking fascination, i.e. to help directed attention to rest and to be restored. Therefore an experimental protocol was set up with aim of assessing how effective the AST would be in restoring the attention of 120 children of a primary school in Aosta (Italy). The results show that the experimental group’s performance on the attention test improved as a result of the AST, without affecting either systolic or diastolic blood pressure. Hence, AST seems to be a good way to restore children’s attentional capacity.
