A few months back Robert posted an entry on “Nature Deficit Disorder“–the idea that children today don’t get enough time outdoors. The concern, according to Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods” is that interaction with nature helps develop important cognitive abilities. I said at the time that I was unaware of any research supporting the idea. I have since learned that there are data supporting something like this claim, at least.
The basic finding is not that interaction with nature is important for development, but that it is “restorative.” Several studies published in the last few years have shown that people do better on certain attention-demanding tasks after a brief interaction with nature. A recent study (Berman et al, 2008, Psychological Science, 19, 1207-1212) provides a convincing argument for what is behind the effect.
Here’s the basic idea: there are two ways that attention can be directed. In one case, attention is directed to something that you find inherently intriguing, e.g., a beautiful painting, or the flames in a fireplace. In the other case, you direct attention to something that you want to think about (and you suppress attention going elsewhere). This latter type of attention is more fatiguing. This distinction between kinds of attention has been around for over 100 years, and a good deal of behavioral and neural data collected in the last thirty years supports it.
Interaction with nature provides, for most of us, lots of stimuli of inherent interest. We like to look at birds, flowers, and trees. Urban environments, in contrast, provide too many stimuli to which we direct attention–for example, the car that you’re afraid won’t slow down at the intersection–and also pelts us with so many stimuli that we must do a lot of suppression to avoid being overwhelmed. So interaction with nature is restorative because it provides a rest for the directive attention system. Interestingly, the experimenters observed a difference in cognitive performance even after watching slides of nature vs. slides of urban environments. So it’s not just the peace and quiet of nature that’s behind the effect.
This directive type of attention is, many people believe, especially important to schooling. This finding fits well with other data showing that recess does provide a cognitive boost for students.
Would it help to project slides of natural scenes at urban schools during recess? It might be worth a try. The size of the effect reported in this experiment was not small.
Some of this really ought to be intuitive. Wordsworth came to very similar conclusions about the “restorative” effects of nature over two centuries ago:
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye;
But oft, in lonely rooms, and ‘mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration (Tintern Abbey)
Wordsworth worried even then about the effects of unrelenting “extraordinary incident” on humanity and celebrated nature’s influence on the contemplative mind. These days, it’s even harder than it was in 1800 to make the case for contemplation and quiet reflection.
By the way, I did a telephone interview with Louv some months ago, in which he cited another important reason for greater exposure to nature: How else will we raise the next generation of environmentalists? The interview is available here: http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/node/2295
Comment by Claus — January 8, 2009 @ 8:35 pm
I wonder whether natural surroundings might actually enable a certain kind of directive attention. Many find that they are able to work on problems in their minds when surrounded by nature.
Is directive attention inherently exhausting, or more so than other kinds? Perhaps split attention is even more taxing: driving a car and having to pay attention to many things at once while focused on arriving safely at the destination. Or teaching a class and having to stay alert to every hint of mischief in the room as the phone rings and announcements come over the loudspeaker.
There might be a certain restoration that comes from the absence of competing demands on one’s attention: having room to think without interruption or tension. In this case the restoration and the directive attention would happen at the same time.
In any case, thank you for this interesting piece.
And Claus, thank you for the Wordsworth quote! That made my day and reminded me to reread “Tintern Abbey.”
Comment by Diana Senechal — January 9, 2009 @ 8:46 am
Claus
Much as I enjoy Wordsworth, we might be leery of taking educational advice from Romantic poets–see this article by E. D. Hirsch on this point:
http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/3390946.html
Diana
Split (the usual term would be divided) attention is considered a subset of directed–it’s a task that the directed attention system would undertake. . and you’re right that it’s taxing.
Regarding the absence of competing demands on attention. . . that was one of the interesting findings from this study: you get the restorative effect of the nature slides compared to urban slides, both of which are viewed in a quiet lab room. . .so there is probably a restorative effect of some peace and quiet but the nature effect is something on top of that. . .
Comment by Dan Willingham — January 9, 2009 @ 11:38 am
I think Diana’s on the right track. The effect of being nature as opposed to in class or at work is like the restorative effects of sleep: the environment is comfortable and calmer so you can physically and mentally relax. The distractions are passive, and there’s no pressure, so your mind is able to let go or solve some of the problems you’ve had stuck in your head.
The idea of bringing nature into the classroom would be somewhat fake…it might help a little to put up posters of redwood forests, but really you’d get a better effect by creating a similar comfortable environment, without pressure, with (probably solitary) open-ended free time when students could just relax and think or work on anything they felt like working on.
Comment by Dave — January 9, 2009 @ 2:44 pm
Thanks for pointing out that article, Dan. Professor Hirsch makes compelling points about Romanticism and education theory. By quoting Wordsworth, I certainly don’t mean to offer him (or any other Romantic poet) as the pattern for modern education policy.
But his early (and frequently expressed) wariness of enforced distraction and unremitting stimulation seem relevant today, both within and beyond schools.
Comment by Claus — January 9, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
As a biology teacher, the question I have is this: If this research implies that my students might benefit from viewing nature slides in class, do I risk losing that benefit if I talk about the slides?
Comment by Paul — January 22, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Paul
To *really* know we’d have to conduct the study which has not, to my knowledge, been conducted. My *guess* is that the tranquility is part of it, and if you (or anyone else talked) the effect would vanish or be greatly attenuated.
Comment by Dan Willingham — January 22, 2009 @ 8:14 pm