In an iconic scene from the Czech film Marecek, Pass Me the Pen! a professor asks student Svatek about the historical significance of the steam engine. Svatek fidgets and says only one sentence. Then students Slajs and Tucek enter the dialogue.
Slajs: Excuse me, he is ashamed to tell you that he has to walk.
Professor: Walk? And where?
Tucek: Svatek is used to walking when he's thinking. If he can't walk, nothing occurs to him.
Svatek: I work in sales and when dictating letters, I have to walk.
Professor: So get into the aisle and walk, if it helps you.
So-called motoric learning is nothing new. Some people simply learn better when in motion. Moving helps us similarly in creative thinking, as shown not only by Svatek's studies and letter dictating but also by recent research by psychologists at Stanford University in the USA.
A study entitled Give Your Legs Some Ideas: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking confirmed that creative thinking while walking achieves 60% better results when compared to sitting. The most important factor, however, is not the environment in which we walk but the very movement itself while walking. Even the authors of the study were surprised by the same creative results achieved by respondents who had walked out in the fresh air and those who had walked on a treadmill inside a room with bare walls.
The study conducted four experiments in which 176 students participated. Their task was to sit or walk inside and outside. Some respondents were even tested while sitting in a wheelchair being moved by another person. All of them completed tests on creative thinking. The conclusion clearly showed that we think most creatively when walking and a few minutes after we sit down. However, walking is not so beneficial in the case of thinking that requires concentration in order to find only one correct answer. It is ideal to walk when you need to gain a new perspective on a certain matter or a completely new idea.
Does walking help you think more creatively?
-kk-