Articles

Berman, Marc G., Jonides, John, Kaplan, Stephen, "The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting with Nature", Psychological Science, Volume 19 - Number 12, 2008, pages 1207 - 1212, <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jjonides/pdf/2008_2.pdf> Accessed September 4, 2010

study indicates that walking in nature (as opposed to an urban setting) results in improved cognitive performance, in particular directed-attention ability (attention directed by cognitive-control processes) ... ART test scores improved by 20%... similar results were found when participants viewed 10 minutes of nature photographs; directed attention plays an important role in short term memory and school success ... nature requires only modest involuntary attention (attention captured by inherently intriguing or important stimuli) allowing directed-attention mechanism an opportunity to replenish, while urban areas require constant attention making it less restorative ... based on ART (Attention Restorative Theory, Kaplan, 1995, 2001)