Walking encourages creative thinking

Creative by walking

04/28/2014

Walking strengthens the „creative brainstorming“, This is the result of a study by the US research team led by Daniel Schwartz of Stanford University and Marily Oppezzo of Santa Clara University. Difficult tasks, whose solutions require a high degree of creativity, can best be solved during a walk.

Exercise not only strengthens physical health but also the creative spirit. Like the scientists in the trade magazine „Journal of Experimental Psychology“ In their test of creative thinking, students achieved significantly better results when walking in parallel on a treadmill or outdoors. The effect has also stopped some time after walking.

Better performance in creativity tests during exercise
In four different experiments, the US scientists investigated possible connections between the physical movement and the mind. 179 students should first pass a test of their associative and creative thinking while sitting and then on the treadmill. According to the researchers, 81 percent of the subjects achieved a better result in the test of their creativity during exercise. In the convergent thinking test, however, only 23 percent of participants performed better on treadmills than sitting down. For many, a counterproductive effect of the movement on the ability to associate was shown here. The creativity test was based on the specification of a known item for which alternative uses should be mentioned. In the association test, subjects should use a word series to see how the words can be meaningfully supplemented with an additional word (eg, fire, flight, knitwear)..

Even after walking, the creativity is increased
In the second experiment, subjects should complete the two tests after first sitting and then walking on the treadmill or after walking and then sitting down. The researchers found that the improvement of creative thinking persists even after walking. The previous walk has one „creative rest push“ in the subsequent completion of the test while sitting causes. The third experiment generally tested the effect of outdoor exercise on creative and convergent thinking, and the fourth experiment compared whether outdoor exercise in the fresh air might also be beneficial over treadmill motion. For this purpose, the participants sat and walked during the tests indoors, went on a treadmill inside and then after outdoors or were pushed around in a wheelchair in the open. Walking outdoors has resulted in the clearest improvement in creative thinking, Oppezzo and Schwartz report.

Go purposefully to increase creativity
According to the researchers, it remains unclear how walking leads to an improvement in creative thinking, but the effect can not be denied. „Walking opens the free exchange of ideas and is an easy and reliable way to increase creativity“, so the conclusion of Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz. At the same time physical activity generally strengthens the health. (Fp)