Facilitating creative thinking in the classroom: Investigating the effects of plants and the colour green on visual and verbal creativity

Abstract

Highlights •We examined the effects of exposure to live plants, views to nature and the colour green upon visual and verbal creativity in classroom settings. Participants completed a visual and verbal creativity task. Three groups were used; one group in a classroom surrounded my plants and view to natural settings, one with no views to nature but who completed the task on green paper, the third, with no plants present and no views to nature. Findings indicate visual creativity is increased by exposure to natural views, plants and the colour green. Findings indicate that access to natural views, plants and the colour green increase visual creativity, but have no impact on verbal creativity in classroom settings. The results suggest that creativity is domain specific and any practical measures taken to enhance creativity need to be aligned with the target domain. AbstractWe report upon a study concerned with the effect of exposure to live plants, views to nature and the colour green upon visual and verbal creativity. The study reported in this paper was undertaken with 108 business students at a British University who were randomly allocated to one of the three conditions. The control group were placed in a classroom with no plants present and blinds drawn to block view to natural settings, the first experimental group were placed in a classroom with no plants present, blinds drawn to block views to nature but completed the creativity tasks on green paper. The second experimental group were placed in the same room as the other groups, but were surrounded by live plants and had views to nature through the large classroom windows. All participants completed two creativity tasks; a visual creativity task and a verbal creativity task. Visual creativity was assessed using a modified version of Amabile's Consensual Assessment Technique (Amabile, 1982). Verbal creative was assessed using a modified scoring method of Guilford's alternative uses task developed by Silvia (2008). Findings indicate that access to natural views, plants and the colour green increase visual creativity, but have no impact on verbal creativity in classroom settings. The results suggest that creativity is domain specific and any practical measures taken to enhance creativity need to be aligned with the target domain.

Spatial Intelligence and Students’ Achievement to Support Creativity on Visuospatial-Based Learning

“…To overcome this, the Wimba learning model is one solution that can train students to think creatively by doing a 3D representation and will have an impact on improving the creativity of students. Studente et al (2016), stated that creativity is a specific domain and the steps taken practically to enhance creativity must be aligned with the target domain…”

Stress Response and Cognitive Performance Modulation in Classroom versus Natural Environments: A Quasi-Experimental Pilot Study with Children

“…In contrast to research that has found that children perform better on cognitive tasks after exposure to natural environments [ 20 , 65 , 66 , 67 ], we found no indications of superior cognitive performance in the natural environments compared to the classrooms. While most acute exposure studies used passive task-free environmental exposures [ 68 ], several studies reported improved cognitive performance when participants were exposed to natural stimuli during task performance (e.g., [ 69 ]). However, it was also shown that ‘micro-breaks’ of only 40-s, visual exposures to natural stimuli were sufficient to improve cognitive performance [ 70 ].…”

Promoting effects of color‐text congruence in banner advertising

“…For instance, red, as a signal of danger, can slow down participants' walking speed to an interview about intelligence, 25 whereas the association between green and nature can facilitate visual creativity. 26 Likewise, the association between blue and openness can cue approach motivation, facilitating performance on creative tasks. 27 In addition, Abbreviations: FC, fixation counts; FT, fixation time; SF, sequence of fixation; SM, subjective measurement.…”