feeling brain-jammed while in the middle of
writing a creative plot? Go stroll around to get
free-flowing thoughts back.
Taking a simple walk may lead to more
creativity than sitting, research says.
"Incorporating physical activity into our lives
is not only beneficial for our hearts but our
brains as well. This research suggests an easy
and productive way to weave it into certain
work activities," explained Marily Oppezzo
from Santa Clara University.
Many people claim they do their best thinking
when walking. With this study, we finally may
be taking a step or two toward discovering
why, he added.
To figure this out, Oppezzo and colleague
Daniel L. Schwartz from Stanford University's
graduate school of education conducted
studies involving 176 people, mostly college
students.
They found that those who walked instead of
sitting or being pushed in a wheelchair
consistently gave more creative responses on
tests commonly used to measure creative
thinking.
When asked to solve problems with a single
answer, however, the walkers fell slightly
behind those who responded while sitting.
Of the students tested for creativity while
walking, 100 percent came up with more
creative ideas in one experiment.
In other experiments, 95 percent, 88 percent
and 81 percent people from walker groups
had more creative responses compared with
when they were sitting, said the study
published in the Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.
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