The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting With Nature

Is your doctor going to have a stroke protocol to increase your cognition by making sure you get a daily walk or wheelchair ride thru a natural area? Or is that too much to ask to get done in the next year?
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/19/12/1207

1. Marc G. Berman1,2,
2. John Jonides1 and
3. Stephen Kaplan1,3

+ Author Affiliations

1. ¹Department of Psychology
2. ²Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering
3. ³Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan

1. Marc G. Berman, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109–1043, e-mail: bermanm@umich.edu.

Abstract

We compare the restorative effects on cognitive functioning of interactions with natural versus urban environments. Attention restoration theory (ART) provides an analysis of the kinds of environments that lead to improvements in directed-attention abilities. Nature, which is filled with intriguing stimuli, modestly grabs attention in a bottom-up fashion, allowing top-down directed-attention abilities a chance to replenish. Unlike natural environments, urban environments are filled with stimulation that captures attention dramatically and additionally requires directed attention (e.g., to avoid being hit by a car), making them less restorative. We present two experiments that show that walking in nature or viewing pictures of nature can improve directed-attention abilities as measured with a backwards digit-span task and the Attention Network Task, thus validating attention restoration theory. 

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The results showed that people’s performance on the test improved by almost 20% after wandering amongst the trees. By comparison those subjected to a busy street did not reliably improve on the test.

In the second study participants weren’t even allowed to leave the lab but instead some stared at pictures of natural scenes while others looked at urban environments. The improvements weren’t quite as impressive as the first study, but, once again, the trees and fields beat the roads and lampposts.