Other than home, children spend more time at school than in any other indoor environment. Unlike home, however, the indoor school environment places heavy cognitive demands on children. Exposure to such demands highlight the importance of time and place for restoration or renewal during the school day. A restorative environment can help students recover the resources that were depleted as they worked to meet the demands of the classroom. This research examined how children restore their cognitive performance and how they perceive psychological restoration based on where they spend their recess time -- either in a natural or a built environment.
Two Italian primary schools participated in two related studies. Study 1 focused on the impact of a natural versus built environment on attention restoration in a school setting. Eighty-two 4th and 5th grade students participated in this study. They spent their morning recess in a natural outdoor area one day, and in a built outdoor area (courtyard) another day. While outdoors, they participated in an organized group activity each day. They also completed standardized tests of attention, working memory, and impulse control before and after their morning recess in each environment. Additionally, they completed an assessment of perceived restorativeness after their recess in both the natural and built outdoor areas. Results showed a greater increase from pretest to post-test scores in sustained and selective attention and concentration after recess in the natural environment than in the built environment. There were no differences in natural vs. built environments for impulse control. Children also rated the natural environment as significantly more restorative than the built environment.
Study 2 also focused on attention restoration and perceived restorativeness in a natural versus built environment. While the purpose of this study was to replicate the significant main effects of Study 1, several changes were made in the study design: only 5th graders (N = 36) participated in this study; the recess time was scheduled as an afternoon versus morning break; and the students participated in free play versus in an organized group activity while outdoors. Additionally, participants for Study 2 were divided into two groups: one group spending recess time in the natural environment; the other group in the built environment. The latter change was made to address concerns about practice effects that can occur when the same children take the same assessments more than one time. Results showed an increase in sustained and selective attention for the group having recess in the natural environment and a decrease in sustained and selective attention for the group having recess in the built environment. The perceived restorativeness scores were also significantly higher for the group with recess in the natural (versus built) environment.
This research indicates that organized group playtime and individual free play in a natural environment supports students' attention restoration during both morning and afternoon school times. The research also indicates that a natural environment is perceived by students as being more restorative than a built environment. While this research found that neither the natural nor built environment influenced impulse control, other research shows a positive connection between time in nature and impulse control in children. This study, along with other research, suggests that “green spaces and natural areas should be present in every school” and that such areas should be used for both play and learning activities.
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