{"id":6842,"date":"2022-11-28T17:23:08","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T22:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=6842"},"modified":"2022-11-28T17:23:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T22:23:08","slug":"walking-promotes-creativity-a-skeptic-weighs-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/walking-promotes-creativity-a-skeptic-weighs-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking Promotes Creativity? A Skeptic Weighs In…"},"content":{"rendered":"

When teachers try to use psychology research in the classroom, we benefit from a balance of optimism and skepticism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Family<\/a><\/p>\n

I confess, I\u2019m often the skeptic.<\/p>\n

When I hear that \u2013 say \u2013 \u201cretrieval practice helps students learn,\u201d I hope that\u2019s true, but I want to see lots of research first<\/em>.<\/p>\n

No matter the suggestion\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 working memory training!<\/p>\n

\u2026 dual coding!<\/p>\n

\u2026 mindfulness!<\/p>\n

\u2026 exercise breaks!!!<\/p>\n

\u2026 I\u2019m going to check the research before I get too excited. (Heck, I even wrote a book<\/a> about checking the research, in case you want to do so as well.)<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one surprising example.<\/p>\n

Because I really like the outdoors (summer camp, here I come!), I\u2019d LOVE to believe that walking outside has cognitive benefits.<\/p>\n

When I get all skeptical and check out the research\u2026it turns out that walking outside DOES have cognitive benefits.<\/p>\n

As I wrote back in May<\/a>, we\u2019ve got enough good research to persuade me, at least for now, that walking outdoors helps with cognition.<\/p>\n

Could anything be better?<\/p>\n

Yup, Even Better<\/h2>\n

Yes, reader, I\u2019ve got even better news.<\/p>\n

The research mentioned above suggests that walking restores depleted levels of both working memory and attention<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d I hear you ask, \u201cbut we\u2019ve got other important mental functions. What about creativity<\/em>? What does the research show?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve recently found research<\/a> that looks at that very question.<\/p>\n

Alas, studying creativity creates important research difficulties.<\/p>\n

How do you define<\/strong> \u201ccreativity\u201d?<\/p>\n

How do you measure<\/strong> it?<\/p>\n

This research, done by Oppezzo and Schwartz, defines it thus: \u201cthe production of appropriate novelty\u2026which may be subsequently refined.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is: if I can come up with something both new and useful<\/strong>, I\u2019ve been creative \u2013 even if my new\/useful thing isn\u2019t yet perfect.<\/p>\n

Researchers have long used a fun test for this kind of creativity: the \u201calternative uses\u201d test<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That is: researchers name an everyday object, and ask the participants to come up with alternative uses for it.<\/p>\n

For example, one participant in this study was given the prompt \u201cbutton.\u201d For alternative uses, s\/he came up with\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cas a doorknob for a dollhouse, an eye for a doll, a tiny strainer, to drop behind you to keep your path.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So much creativity!<\/p>\n

Once these researchers had a definition and a way to measure, what did they find?<\/p>\n

The research; the results<\/h2>\n

This research team started simple.<\/p>\n

Participants \u2013 students in local colleges \u2013 sat for a while<\/em>, then took a creativity test. Then they walked for a while<\/em>, and took second version of that test.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, students scored higher on creativity after they walked<\/em> than after they sat<\/em>.<\/p>\n

How much higher? I\u2019m glad you asked: almost 60% higher<\/strong>! That\u2019s a really big boost for such a simple change.<\/p>\n

However, you might see a problem. Maybe students did better on the 2nd<\/sup> test (after the walking) because they had had a chance to practice (after the sitting)?<\/p>\n

Oppezzo and Schwartz spotted this problem, and ran three more studies<\/em> to confirm their results.<\/p>\n

So, they had some students sit then walk<\/strong>, while others walked then sat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Results? Walking still helps<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In another study, they had some students walk or sit indoors<\/strong>, and walk or sit outdoors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Results: walking promotes creativity both indoors and out<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Basically, they tried to find evidence against <\/em>the hypothesis that walking boosts creativity\u2026and they just couldn\u2019t do it. (That\u2019s my favorite kind of study.)<\/p>\n

Just One Study?<\/h2>\n

Long-time readers know what\u2019s coming next.<\/p>\n

We teachers should never change our practice based on just one study \u2013 even if that study includes 4 different experiments.<\/p>\n

So, what happens when we look for more research on the topic?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve checked out my go-to sources: scite.ai<\/a> and connectedpapers.com<\/a>. (If you like geeking out about research, give them a try \u2013 they\u2019re great!)<\/p>\n

Sure enough, scite.ai finds 13 studies that support this conclusion, and 3 that might contradict it. (In my experience, that’s a good ratio.)<\/p>\n

Connectedpapers.com produces fewer on-point results. However, the most recent study<\/a> seems like a very close replication, and arrived at similar findings.<\/p>\n

In brief: although I\u2019m usually a skeptic, I\u2019m largely persuaded.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/h2>\n

Walking outdoors helps restore working memory<\/strong> and attention<\/strong>; walking either indoors or outdoors enhances creativity<\/strong> (at least as measured by the “alternative uses”\u00a0 test).<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to see some studies done in schools and classrooms. For the time being, I think we have a persuasive foundation for this possible conclusion.<\/p>\n

Our strategies for putting this research to good use will, of course, be different for each of us. But it’s good to know: simply walking about can help students think more creatively.<\/p>\n

\n

Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: the positive effect of walking on creative thinking.\u00a0Journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition<\/i>,\u00a040<\/i>(4), 1142.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When teachers try to use psychology research in the classroom, we benefit from a balance of optimism and skepticism. I confess, I\u2019m often the skeptic. When I hear that \u2013 say \u2013 \u201cretrieval practice helps students learn,\u201d I hope that\u2019s true, but I want to see lots of research first. No matter the suggestion\u2026 \u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48,33],"class_list":["post-6842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-creativity","tag-exercise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6842"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6848,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6842\/revisions\/6848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}