Green Breaks: The Restorative Effect of the School Environment’s Green Areas on Children’s Cognitive Performance

Abstract

Restoration involves individuals’ physical, psychological, and social resources, which have diminished over the years in the process of meeting the demands of everyday life. Psychological restoration can be provided by specific environments, in particular by natural environments. Studies report a restorative effect of nature on human beings, specifically in terms of the psychological recovery from attention fatigue and restored mental resources that were previously spent in activities that require attention. Two field studies in two Italian primary schools tested the hypothesized positive effect of recess time spent in a natural (vs. built) environment on pupils’ cognitive performance and their perceived restorativeness, using standardized tests. In Study 1, children’s psychological restoration was assessed by measuring sustained and selective attention, working memory, and impulse control, before and after the morning recess time. Team standardized playtime was conducted in a natural (vs. built) environment, and the perceived restorativeness was measured after each recess time. Results showed a greater increase in sustained and selective attention, concentration, and perceived restorativeness from pretest to posttest after the natural environment condition. In Study 2, the positive effect of free play recess time in a natural (vs. built) environment was assessed during the afternoon school time on sustained and selective attention and perceived restorativeness. Results showed an increase in sustained and selective attention after the natural environment condition (vs. built) and a decrease after the built environment break. Higher scores in perceived restorativeness were registered after the natural (vs. built) environment condition. Team standardized playtime and individual free play recess in a natural environment (vs. built) support pupils’ attention restoration during both morning and afternoon school times, as well as their perceived restorativeness of the recess environment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in terms of nature’s role both for the school ground design or redesign and for the organization of the school’s activities.

The Role of Urban/Rural Environments on Mexican Children’s Connection to Nature and Pro-environmental Behavior

“…Living close to nature is not always possible and other ways of providing opportunities for children's contact with nature should be considered. For example, schoolyards could play an important role in enhancing urban children's time spent in natural areas (Amicone et al, 2018). Introducing nature in the classroom, such as wall gardens, can also be an effective way for children to experience nature in their daily live (van den Berg et al, 2017).…”

Is it Really Nature That Restores People? A Comparison With Historical Sites With High Restorative Potential

“…With reference to restorative environments, Herzog et al (2002) have showed the importance of a number of contextual factors in the evaluation and selection of settings for restoration; and both Scopelliti and Giuliani (2004, 2005) and Staats and Hartig (2004) have emphasized the effect of the social environment in restoration outcomes. In addition, recent studies have suggested that a relevant mechanism promoting positive outcomes can be the perception of the restorative properties of the environment during on-site experiences in urban parks (Scopelliti et al, 2016), botanical gardens (Carrus et al, 2017) and educational settings (Amicone et al, 2018). These results deserve further exploration in terms of psychological processes leading to restoration as the on-site experience goes on.…”

The Restorative Effect of the Presence of Greenery on the Classroom in Children’s Cognitive Performance

“…These restorative environments help reduce tiredness, allowing individuals to restore their capacities of directed attention during learning activities [4,5]. ART is the theory that has most influenced research regarding the restorative effect of nature on humans' well-being [6]. A core concept in this theory is that human beings have limited cognitive capacities, namely, limited directed attention, particularly when the point of attention is not of interest to the subject [4].…”