Smarter by nature
Written by Gemma Goldenberg for Early Years Educator, Nov 2020
Nature’s impact on the mind
The idea that contact with nature is beneficial for humans is not a new one. The origins of therapeutic gardening have been traced back as far as 2000BC in Mesopotamia where horticulture was used as a calming technique (Detweiler et al, 2012).
Ecopsychology emerged as a field in the 1960s, exploring the link between nature and wellbeing (Roberts et al, 2019) and in the 1970s, concerns about the impact of urbanisation on children led to more research focussed on young people and exposure to nature (Chawla, 2015).
However, it is only more recently that research has looked beyond effects on stress and wellbeing and explored the ways in which nature might affect cognitive functions such as memory and attention. The majority of this research has been conducted with adults. However, there is a small but growing body of research which investigates how children’s memory and attention might be affected by time in natural environments.
What is the evidence base?
Some of the largest studies explore whether children who spend more time in green environments perform better on cognitive tests than their counterparts from more urban areas. These correlational studies provide evidence that living in, or attending a school in, nature-rich surroundings is associated with better cognitive outcomes. One study (Dadvand et al., 2018) of schoolchildren used 3D brain scans to see whether lifelong exposure to residential greenspace affected brain development. Levels of greenspace were calculated around each of the homes children had lived in since birth and children were given a set of cognitive tasks, repeated 4 times during the year, to measure their attention skills. Results suggested that being raised in greener neighbourhoods was associated with beneficial effects on brain development and better cognitive performance. The brain areas particularly affected were those related to working memory and attentiveness. These findings have been replicated in other studies, including one where children who moved house to a greener area made increased improvements in directed attention (Wells, 2000) and others which found links between greenspace around the school or neighbourhood, and better performance in memory and/or attention tests (Davdand et al, 2015; Flouri et al, 2019).
Of course, it may be the case that children living in greener areas tend to be from wealthier families, have larger homes or lead less stressful lives and it may be such factors which actually affect attention and memory. Whilst studies try to incorporate these other variables into their analyses in order to isolate the specific effects of nature, with correlational research we can never be certain that nature is causing the effects that are observed.
For this reason, experimental studies may provide more compelling evidence that nature directly impacts cognitive skills. One study (Van Dijk-Wesselius et al, 2018) changed paved playgrounds in some schools to greener, natural areas, whilst other schools were left as concrete. Children completed tests of attention before playground ‘greening’ took place and 1 and 2 years afterwards. Initially, and after 1 year, there was no difference in the attentional performance between children with green play spaces and those with concrete playgrounds. However, at the 2 year follow up the children with greened playgrounds showed greater improvement in their scores, suggesting that nature in the playground gradually improved attention over time.
Other experimental research suggests that nature can have an impact on cognition much more quickly. 4-5 year olds walked for just 20 minutes in either a natural or urban environment before completing tasks to assess their memory and attention. A week later they walked in the other environment and completed the tasks again. Children performed significantly better on both tasks after they had walked in nature, compared to an urban walk (Schutte et al, 2017).
Nature contact for children with attention difficulties
It is thought that children with attentional deficits may particularly benefit from nature contact. Parental surveys found that children with ADHD who spent more of their free time outdoors in nature had milder symptoms than those who carried out the same activities indoors or in built up settings (Faber Taylor & Kuo, 2011). A short walk in nature was also found to improve attentional capacities in children with ADHD, equalling the effects of common ADHD medications (Faber Taylor & Kuo, 2009).
How and why would nature affect cognitive functioning?
According to Stress Reduction Theory (Ulrich et al, 1983) humans have evolved to be most comfortable where they can seek food, water and shelter and therefore have an innate preference for natural settings. Natural environments thus reduce feelings of stress which may free up the brain to carry out other functions more effectively and improve people’s ability to pay attention, process information and remember things.
According to Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989) – see box below - nature is beneficial because it allows our attentional capacities to rest and replenish.
It is also thought that content from natural environments, such as views of trees, may be processed more efficiently and easily than urban environments because the brain and senses evolved in natural environments. This idea has been supported by studies which show that processing natures scenes creates less cognitive load than processing urban ones (Valtchanov & Ellard, 2015; Grassini et al., 2019).
Attention Restoration Theory (ART)
ART explains that directed attention (the ability to focus and concentrate on something in particular, whilst controlling other distractions) requires mental effort.
Exerting this effort leads to attentional capacities becoming depleted ie if you concentrate hard on one task, your ability to concentrate in a subsequent task will be impaired.
ART suggests that contact with natural environments can help restore an individual’s ability to concentrate.
Unlike busy, urban environments - natural environments engage our attention effortlessly and don’t place high demands on directed attention.
As natural environments are processed more easily by the brain and contain fewer distractions, attentional capacities are able to rest and replenish.
Therefore following nature exposure, our ability to focus and pay attention is improved.
Multiple studies with adults have supported this theory, showing better performance on tasks requiring directed attention following exposure to natural environments (both real and virtual) compared to exposure to urban environments.
Implications for practice
Before using this research to influence practice, it’s important to consider its limitations. Given that early childhood is a time when the brain is developing rapidly, it is assumed that this would be a key time to study nature’s effect on cognition. However, studies rarely focus on children younger than 7-8 years old, limiting our understanding of how nature effects children in the early years specifically.
Another issue is that the tests and tasks used to measure cognitive performance vary across different studies and it can be difficult to disentangle exactly what each test measures. For example, a ‘digit span’ task is often used, which involves hearing sequences of digits which increase in length each time, and repeating them back. This task is said to utilise directed attention because children need to hold information in mind and move it in and out of attentional focus. However, it can be argued that this is also a test of memory. Being uncertain of exactly what such tasks measure, makes it difficult to identify how nature contact affects the brain specifically and which brain functions are most affected.
Furthermore, whilst nature exposure may improve performance on such tests, it is questionable how closely this relates to the learning activities children would encounter in ‘real life’. Would children pay better attention when listening to a story for example, or learning phonics?
Despite these limitations, the available evidence does suggest that time in nature can benefit both memory and attention in children although it remains unclear how much nature exposure is needed to have an effect, how long effects take to emerge and how long they last for.
Finding out for yourself
There is a lack of naturalistic research which observes effects during everyday school activities and so it may be worth investigating this in small scale practitioner enquiries.
Identify an activity during the school day which requires children to pay close attention or to recall information. Experiment with providing nature access directly before this activity and see whether it has an impact on children’s cognitive performance.
Think about how you’ll measure children’s attentional or memory performance – perhaps by the number of interruptions during storytime, or the number of phonemes recalled by a child during a phonics activity.
By providing nature contact for different groups of children on different days, or to the whole group on some days but not others, you will be able to observe whether it makes a difference or not. Perhaps begin by looking at effects on just a small number of children.
If no effects are observed, it may be the case that the nature intervention hasn’t had an impact but could also be that effects from nature contact take longer to accumulate. Children may have their own insights on whether time outside in nature helps them to remember things or to pay attention, consider making them part of the process and asking them for their own reflections and observations.
Key points:
Research suggests that time spent in nature has a positive effect on both memory and attention
It may be particularly effective for children with ADHD
More research is needed to examine effects on younger children and to determine how much nature exposure is needed and how long effects last for
Small scale enquiries in your own setting may demonstrate whether nature access can improve memory and attention for your pupils
References
Chawla, L. (2015). Benefits of nature contact for children. Journal of Planning Literature, 30(4), 433-452.
Dadvand, P., Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J., Esnaola, M., Forns, J., Basagaña, X., Alvarez-Pedrerol, M., Rivas, I., López-Vicente, M., De Pascual, M. C., Su, J., Jerrett, M., Querol, X., & Sunyer, J. (2015). Green spaces and cognitive development in primary schoolchildren. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(26), 7937–7942
Detweiler, M. B., Sharma, T., Detweiler, J. G., Murphy, P. F., Lane, S., Carman, J., ... & Kim, K. Y. (2012). What is the evidence to support the use of therapeutic gardens for the elderly?. Psychiatry investigation, 9(2), 100.
Faber Taylor, A., & Kuo, F. E. (2009). Children with attention deficits concentrate better after walk in the park. Journal of Attention Disorders, 12(5), 402–409.
Faber Taylor, A., & Kuo, F. E. M. (2011a). Could exposure to everyday green spaces help treat adhd? Evidence from children’s play settings. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 3(3), 281–303.
Flouri, E., Papachristou, E., & Midouhas, E. (2019). The role of neighbourhood greenspace in children’s spatial working memory. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(2), 359–373
Grassini, S., Revonsuo, A., Castellotti, S., Petrizzo, I., Benedetti, V., & Koivisto, M. (2019). Processing of natural scenery is associated with lower attentional and cognitive load compared with urban ones. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 62(January), 1–11
Kaplan, R. & Kaplan, S. (1989), The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Park, B. J., Tsunetsugu, Y., Kasetani, T., Kagawa, T., & Miyazaki, Y. (2010). The physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing): evidence from field experiments in 24 forests across Japan. Environmental health and preventive medicine, 15(1), 18.
Roberts, A., Hinds, J., & Camic, P. M. (2019). Nature activities and wellbeing in children and young people: a systematic literature review. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 1-21.
Schutte, A. R., Torquati, J. C., & Beattie, H. L. (2017). Impact of Urban Nature on Executive Functioning in Early and Middle Childhood. Environment and Behavior, 49(1), 3–30.
Ulrich, R. S. (1983). Aesthetic and affective response to natural environment. In Behavior and the natural environment (pp. 85-125). Springer, Boston, MA.
Valtchanov, D., & Ellard, C. G. (2015). Cognitive and affective responses to natural scenes: Effects of low level visual properties on preference, cognitive load and eye-movements. Journal of Environmental Psychology,
van Dijk-Wesselius, J. E., Maas, J., Hovinga, D., van Vugt, M., & van den Berg, A. E. (2018). The impact of greening schoolyards on the appreciation, and physical, cognitive and social-emotional well-being of schoolchildren: A prospective intervention study. Landscape and Urban Planning, 180(July), 15–26.
Wells, N. M. (2000). At home with nature: Effects of “greenness” on children’s cognitive functioning. Environment and behavior, 32(6), 775-795.
