Children use greater cognitive resources while indoors than outdoors in nature to achieve the same level of performance on tasks requiring attention and inhibitory controlThe aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the influence of green environments on attention and other executive functions in children. Attention is a basic cognitive process underlying other higher order executive functions, such as working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Attention plays a critical role in academic achievement, emotion regulation, and social competence.
Data for this study was based on cognitive test performance results and neural responses of ten children (age 6-11) as they completed four attention and inhibitory control tasks in two different settings: a natural outdoor environment and an indoor laboratory room. The time between their participation in the two settings was approximately one week and the order of indoor and outdoor sessions was counterbalanced. The tasks performed by the children measured working memory, spatial working memory, attention, and inhibitory control. Children completed the same tasks in both settings while wearing a soft head net with embedded electrodes that recorded electrical activity in the brain, with specific attention to variations in event-related potentials (ERPs). Such recordings allow for an examination of neuropsychological underpinnings of observed variations in attention that occur in response to a stimulus. When stimuli focus on differences between natural and indoor environments, ERP readings can be used to better understand potential mechanisms whereby natural environments may be restorative. Previous research with adults documented greater ERP amplitude in response to more demanding tasks as well as in indoor versus outdoor settings. The present study is the first to compare children’s neural responses while performing cognitive tasks in natural versus indoor environments.
On the spatial working memory task, children performed significantly better outdoors than indoors. On the attention and inhibitory control tasks, there were no significant differences in their performance between the indoor and outdoor settings. There was significantly less neurological activity, however, in the outdoor versus indoor setting. This suggests that some cognitive processes may take less effort outdoors compared to indoors. It also reinforces the idea that natural environments can be restorative with respect to executive functions.
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