In Brief
- WashU research bolsters attention restoration theory, the idea that green spaces can restore one’s ability to focus.
- Greater exposure to green spaces in early childhood correlates with better performance on attention and achievement tests.
- Better air quality in green spaces may be a factor.
The world is a far louder and more distracting place than when humans first evolved. But there’s increasing evidence that experiencing nature can help restore attention lost to modern distractions, known as “directed attention fatigue.”
In research recently published in Environment International, psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis add to growing evidence behind attention restoration theory (ART), the idea that there’s something innately restorative to one’s attention in experiencing nature and green spaces. WashU researchers wanted to test this effect on children using data from the long-running ABCD study.
Their question: “If a child lives closer to green space, and has more access to green space, does this help them pay attention on demand when it’s required, and do they do better at school on achievement tests?” said Carina Fowler, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Deanna Barch, a professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences and the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry at WashU Medicine.
It turns out, those neighborhood parks and woods can make a big difference.
“The greater the proximity to green space, the better kids did on objective assessments of their attention performance,” Fowler said.
There are many questions about attention restoration theory. This research tackled those questions with a robust data set, using statistical analysis to filter out confounding factors such as income level, ADHD diagnosis and a slew of other measures that could affect attention.
Under the canopy
Studies have long shown that children perform better on sustained attention, inhibitory control and working memory tasks after time in a school garden, a park or a nature walk. They also score higher on reading and math assessments in greener environments. The question is why, and do all green spaces offer this benefit?
Some studies have found little effect of green space on attention performance, but the proponents of attention restoration theory note that, “You have to feel safe in the green space to have an effect,” Fowler said, adding that the restoration effect is not as strong if someone is on social media while in that green space. That, and “the kind of green space might matter.”
The team used ABCD data, which follows roughly 12,000 American children, with a median age of 10, as they grow. Participants are given performance-based assessments throughout the observational study, including directed attention and intelligence measures.
The team’s data analysis also controlled for sense of safety, social media use, income and diagnosis of ADHD.
The extra step the team developed was a green space metric, assessed as the average of the proportion of tree canopy and the proportion of park cover in their census tracts, allowing some differentiation in the type of green space. They found that being near a tree canopy or park is key to children’s positive attention outcomes and assessments. Not just any strip of grass will do.
Touching grass
ART proponents suggest something in green spaces is inherently restorative.
Green space “captures your attention” but also “allows your mind to wander,” a combination that restores attention, Fowler said.
Others have suggested that physical activity in nature is the source of the restorative effect, along with more exposure to clean air. Fowler and the team attempted to sort that out and found a connection to air quality, but not to physical activity.
“There is something to the idea that air quality is partially explaining why green space is helping our attention,” Fowler said.
Researchers are still trying to understand just how the brain is restored with time in nature. Why wouldn’t going to a quiet dark room work better? Fowler said previous research has shown that people don’t like sensory deprivation or being in a quiet room with their thoughts.
“It seems people need something to be occupying them a little bit — but not too much — and that nature can provide that really well.”
Fowler CH, Luby JL, Bastain TM, Breton CV, Barch DM. Green space is associated with better directed attention and higher crystallized intelligence in middle childhood: Evidence from the ABCD study. Environment International, Volume 215, 2026, 110502.
