Article: we need lots of windows

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Research Report

The Cognitive Benefits of

Interacting With Nature

Marc G. Berman,1,2 John Jonides,1 and Stephen Kaplan1,3

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

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Attention restoration theory (ART; Kaplan, 1995, 2001) offers a novel approach to identifying and restoring a cognitive mechanism. ART is based on past research showing the separation of attention into two components: involuntary attention, where attention is captured by inherently intriguing or important stimuli, and voluntary or directed attention, where attention is directed by cognitive-control processes.  


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According to ART, interacting with environments rich with inherently fascinating stimuli (e.g., sunsets) invoke involuntary attention modestly, allowing directed-attention mechanisms a chance to replenish (Kaplan, 1995). That is, the requirement for directed attention in such environments is minimized, and at- tention is typically captured in a bottom-up fashion by features of the environment itself. So, the logic is that, after an interaction with natural environments, one is able to perform better on tasks that depend on directed-attention abilities. Unlike natural en- vironments, urban environments contain bottom-up stimulation (e.g., car horns) that captures attention dramatically and addi- tionally requires directed attention to overcome that stimulation (e.g., avoiding traffic, ignoring advertising, etc.), making urban environments less restorative.

Previous research has provided support for the hypothesis that interactions with nature improve attention and memory (Berto, 2005; Cimprich, 1992, 1993; Cimprich & Ronis, 2003; Faber 1207Taylor, Kuo, & Sullivan, 2002; Hartig et al., 2003; Ottosson & Grahn, 2002; Tennessen & Cimprich, 1995). 

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The picture- type-by-time interaction was of most interest and was found reliable only for the executive portions of the ANT, indicating that exposure to pictures of nature led to more improved executive attention performance than did exposure to urban pictures.

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In sum, we have shown that simple and brief interactions with nature can produce marked increases in cognitive control. To consider the availability of nature as merely an amenity fails to recognize the vital importance of nature in effective cognitive functioning.

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