Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Attentional Demands Of Executive Function Tasks In Indoor And Outdoor Settings: Behavioral And Neuroelectrical Evidence, Julia C. Torquati, Anne R. Schutte, John Kiat

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This study explored the influence of green environments on children’s cognitive functions by using an experimental, within-subjects design to compare children’s neural responses as they engaged in assessments of attention, inhibitory control, and spatial working memory in two different environments: a natural outdoor area and an indoor laboratory room. Ten children ages 6 to 11 years (M= 9.3; SD= 1.5) participated. Children performed significantly better on the spatial working memory task outdoors compared to indoors. There were no significant differences in attention or inhibitory control, but two markers of neurological activity were significantly larger indoors than outdoors, suggesting that more …