How Spending Time in Nature Impacts Our Cognitive Abilities

The article highlights evidence that images of nature can be beneficial. It presents the studies of Frantz and colleagues who compared the outcomes of people who walked outside in either natural or urban settings with those of people who watched videos of those settings. They found that any exposure to nature-in person or via video-led to improvements in attention and the ability to reflect on a life problem. But the effects were stronger among those who actually spent time outside.

https://www.naava.io/science/why-is-nature-beneficial-the-role-of-connectedness-to-nature

This article highlights a study of residents of Denmark, where researchers used satellite data to assess people’s exposure to green space from birth to age 10, which they compared with longitudinal data on individual mental health outcomes. The researchers examined data from more than 900,000 residents born between 1985 and 2003. They found that children who lived in neighborhoods with more green space had a reduced risk of many psychiatric disorders later in life, including depression, schizophrenia, and substance use disorder. For those with the lowest levels of green space exposure during childhood, the risk of developing mental illness was 55% higher than for those who grew up with abundant green space. The article shows that adequate exposure to nature is associated with better mental health.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30804178/#:~:text=adolescence%20into%20adulthood-,Residential%20green%20space%20in%20childhood%20is%20associated%20with%20lower%20risk,doi%3A%2010.1073%2Fpnas.

This article shows that spending time in nature has both cognitive and emotional and existential benefits that go beyond just being able to solve arithmetic problems more quickly. It reviews the research conducted by Gregory Bratman, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, and colleagues who shared demonstrated that contact with nature is associated with decreased mental distress.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31355340/

The article posits that the sounds of nature may be restorative. It details the studies of Berman and colleagues which found that participants who listened to nature sounds like crickets chirping and waves crashing performed better on demanding cognitive tests than those who listened to urban sounds like traffic and the clatter of a busy café.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-018-1539-1

The article highlights a study that demonstrated improvements in children's neuropsychological development and mental health associated with greenness exposure. In particular, it shows that better early childhood neurodevelopment is associated with residential exposure to green space, whereas better emotional and behavioral regulatory skills is demonstrated to be associated with more tree canopy around children's homes and/or schools.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31029981/#article-details

The article highlights experimental findings which show how impressive nature’s healing powers can be-just a few moments of nature exposure can perk up a tired brain. It shows a study about how Australian researchers asked students to engage in a dull, attention-draining task in which they pressed a computer key when certain numbers flashed on a screen. Students who looked out at a flowering green roof for 40 seconds midway through the task made significantly fewer mistakes than students who paused for 40 seconds to gaze at a concrete rooftop. The article concluded that exposure to nature effectively restores an individual's attention.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/40-second-green-roof-views-sustain-attention%3A-The-Lee-Williams/662dbfb1a298df2c35a379bb5c07ac437e666753

The article details a US study showing that city children who live in homes near nature score higher on tests of concentration, impulse inhibition and delay of gratification. Parent ratings of the naturalness of the view from home were used to predict children's performance on tests of concentration, impulse inhibition, and delay of gratification. The findings indicated that, on average, the more natural a girl's view from home, the better her performance at each of these forms of self-discipline. The article demonstrated that sufficient exposure to nature enhances concentration among girls. It also improves their ability to inhibit impulse and delay gratification while in pursuit of a long-term goal.

https://www.vibrantcitieslab.com/resources/views-of-nature-and-self-discipline-evidence-from-inner-city-children/

The article details experiments showing that being exposed to natural environments improves working memory, cognitive flexibility and attentional control, while exposure to urban environments is linked to attention deficit. Generally, the article argued that cognitive tasks that require working memory and cognitive flexibility improve most reliably after nature exposure, with tasks requiring attentional control also showing some improvements. It also highlighted studies from other labs using working memory and cognitive-flexibility tasks that have further shown that participants seem to improve their performance after nature exposure but maintain performance after urban exposure.

https://naaee.org/eepro/research/library/attention-restoration-theory-ii

The article highlights both correlation and experimental research which show that interacting with nature has cognitive benefits. Marc Berman, PhD, a University of Chicago psychologist explored the cognitive benefits associated with nature. He established that green spaces near schools promote cognitive development in children, and green views near children’s homes promote self-control behaviors. Adults assigned to public housing units in neighborhoods with more green space showed better attentional functioning than those assigned to units with less access to natural environments. This article presents self-control and attentional functioning as the benefits yielded by exposure to nature.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721419854100

The article highlights the stress reduction hypothesis, which posits that spending time in nature triggers a physiological response that lowers stress levels. It also emphasizes the attention restoration theory, which holds that nature replenishes one’s cognitive resources, restoring the ability to concentrate and pay attention. This article concludes that regular exposure to nature decreases stress and enhances humans' cognitive abilities.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283298311_Flourishing_in_nature_A_review_of_the_benefits_of_connecting_with_nature_and_its_application_as_a_wellbeing_intervention