Being in contact with green spaces promotes attention and improves executive functions in young people.
- A new data synthesis has established that contact with nature improves cognitive abilities in young people.
- “Our results indicate that prolonged exposure to nature has the potential to improve attention and executive functions in children and adolescents,” the study authors summarize in their report.
- “Cognitive enhancement during childhood has a decisive influence on academic performance, professional success and social development,” they add.
Regular exposure to nature helps improve the cognitive abilities of children and adolescents, new scientific data suggests.
Nature and cognitive abilities: 34 studies examined
To reach this conclusion, the researchers synthesized the results of 34 experimental studies on this topic. Of a total of 3,160 participants, 90% were children and adolescents without any particular mental or physical disorders.
Their contact with nature has been through the following different means: kindergartens, walking, activities and games in nature, reorganizing classrooms to include more green elements and using virtual reality to project forests, lakes, mountains and seasides.
All these experiments showed a slight positive effect of exposure to nature on the cognitive performance of the young people included in the cohort. More specifically, this resulted in an improvement in attention and executive functions, the latter being complex mental processes that allow individuals to plan, remember instructions and manage multiple tasks efficiently (e.g. driving and reading their GPS at the same time).
Nature: “Cognitive enhancement has an influence on academic results”
“Our results indicate that prolonged exposure to nature has the potential to improve attention and executive functions in children and adolescents,” summarize the authors of the study in their report.
“The fast pace and technological demands of modern society lead to high levels of cognitive overload and psychological fatigue, posing challenges for the cognitive health and development of young people,” they note. “Cognitive enhancement during childhood has a decisive influence on academic performance, professional success and social development” they add.
“This meta-analysis aimed to clarify the body of literature regarding the benefits of nature on children’s and adolescents’ cognition by providing a statistical synthesis of the conflicting reports in this area,” they finish.
The article, titled “Benefits of Nature Exposure on Cognitive Functioning in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”, was written by Lan Nguyen and Jared Walters.
