A study of the effects of a natural virtual environment on creativity during a product design activity

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown a beneficial effect of exposing people to natural landscapes and plants on their well being and attentional functioning. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a natural virtual environment on creativity in a task consisting of sketching ideas of creative solutions to a problem. The participants in this experiment were asked to sketch ideas of innovative workstation for a person in a wheelchair. To do this, they used a virtual reality sketching tool. They performed this task once in a neutral environment (all in the dark), one in a natural virtual envirnment (forest) and once in a non-natural environment (office). The results revealed that people tend to be more creative in this task when they are immersed in a natural environment than when they are in a neutral environment without any vegetation.