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Thank you for the great coverage on the White Plains High School Cheerleaders and their participation at the 54th Annual Cheerleading Invitational at the County Center.
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Being Outside Shoveling Snow in Cold Improves Focus, Memory
Posted on Friday, December 19 @ 21:44:38 EST by jfbailey
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WPCNR OUTDOOR LIFE. From University of Michigan News Service.(EDITED) December 19, 2008: With White Plains experiencing its first snowfall of the season Friday of 6 inches falling at the WPCNR News Tower as of 9:30 P.M., and turning roads into slow-going treacherous circumlocutions, shovelers tonight can take heart: Being outside, helps improve your focus—even when it's cold out.
A really "white" White Plains viewed from the WPCNR News Tower 4:30 P.M. The six inch snow job made traveling treacherous, bumper to bumper on Route 119 and there were a lot of fender benders motorists reported to WPCNR surrounding the city. Kids tomorrow will be saying, "Look out slopes, here I come."
Researchers believe the findings could have broader impact on helping people who may be suffering from mental fatigue (from perhaps listening to too many Common Council meetings, County Board of Legislators meetings, Board of Education meetings, work sessions, news network and financial radio station commentators, seated Senators offering comments, Assemblymen and State Senators worrying about cuts, CEOs crying for money, and Senator Wanna-Be's saying how they want to give something back by serving into the Senate.)
"Interacting with nature can have similar effects as meditating," Berman said. "People don't have to enjoy the walk to get the benefits. We found the same benefits when it was 80 degrees and sunny over the summer as when the temperatures dropped to 25 degrees in January. The only difference was that participants enjoyed the walks more in the spring and summer than in the dead of winter."
Kaplan and his wife, Rachel Kaplan, a researcher in psychology and the School of Natural Resources and Environment, argue that people are far more likely to be satisfied with their lives when their environment supports three basic needs: the ability to understand and explore; to feel they make a difference; and to feel competent and effective.
Berman decided to test that theory by sending study participants on walking routes around Ann Arbor. Participants walked on an urban route down main streets and also on a route in U-M's Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, taking in nature. When participants walked in the Arboretum, they improved their short-term memory by 20 percent, but showed no improvements after walking down city streets.
The researchers also tested the same theory by having subjects sit inside and look at pictures of either downtown scenes or nature scenes and again the results were the same: when looking at photos of nature, memory and attention scores improved by about 20 percent, but not when viewing the urban pictures.
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