The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

by Annie Murphy Paul

working and learning in buildings inspired by nature can grant some of the same benefits for cognition as actually being outdoors. In a study published in 2018, for example, a group of researchers from Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health asked participants to spend time in an indoor environment featuring biophilic elements (potted plants, a bamboo-wood floor, windows with a view of greenery and a river) as well as an indoor environment lacking such elements (a windowless, carpeted, fluorescent-lit space). Participants were outfitted with wearable sensors that monitored their blood pressure and their skin conductance; tests of mood and cognitive function were administered following each visit. After just five minutes in the biophilic surroundings, the subjects’ positive emotions increased, their blood pressure and skin conductance dropped, and their short-term memory improved by 14 percent over the level recorded following a visit to the non-biophilic environment.