Prolonged exposure to urban environments requires higher cognitive processing resources than exposure to nature environments, even if only visual cues are available. Here, we explored the moment-to-moment impact of environment type on visual cognitive processing load, measuring gait kinematics and reaction times. In Experiment 1, participants (n = 20) walked toward nature and urban images projected in front of them, one image per walk, and rated each image for visual discomfort. Gait speed and step length decreased for exposure to urban as compared with nature scenes in line with gait changes observed during verbal cognitive load tasks. We teased apart factors that might contribute to cognitive load: image statistics and visual discomfort. Gait changes correlated with subjective ratings of visual discomfort and their interaction with the environment but not with low-level image statistics. In Experiment 2, participants (n = 45) performed a classic shape discrimination task with the same environmental scenes serving as task-irrelevant distractors. Shape discrimination was slower when urban scenes were presented, suggesting that it is harder to disengage attention from urban than from nature scenes. This provides converging evidence that increased cognitive demands posed by exposure to urban scenes can be measured with gait kinematics and reaction times even for short exposure times.

长时间暴露在城市环境中比暴露在自然环境中需要更高的认知处理资源，即使只有视觉线索也是如此。在这里，我们探讨了环境类型对视觉认知处理负荷的即时影响，测量步态运动学和反应时间。在实验 1 中，参与者（ n = 20）走向投射在他们面前的自然和城市图像，每次行走一张图像，并对每张图像的视觉不适程度进行评分。与自然场景相比，暴露在城市中的步态速度和步长降低，这与在言语认知负荷任务中观察到的步态变化一致。我们梳理了可能导致认知负荷的因素：图像统计和视觉不适。步态变化与视觉不适的主观评分及其与环境的相互作用相关，但与低水平的图像统计数据无关。在实验 2 中，参与者 ( n = 45) 执行了一个经典的形状辨别任务，其中相同的环境场景作为与任务无关的干扰项。当呈现城市场景时，形状辨别速度较慢，这表明将注意力从城市场景中移开比从自然场景中更难。这提供了一致的证据，表明暴露在城市场景中所带来的认知需求的增加可以通过步态运动学和反应时间来测量，即使暴露时间很短。