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The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting With Nature

Marc G. Berman^1,2; John Jonides¹; Stephen Kaplan^1,3

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

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.

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02225.x

Volume

19 (12)

Pages

1207-1212

Language

en

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