Can Houseplants Make You Smarter?

By Colleen Vanderlinden, Planet Green

Houseplants clean the air and brighten a room. Occasionally, they drive us mad as we wonder how exactly we managed to kill yet another “unkillable” houseplant. (In that way, they provide great lessons in perseverance as well!) But it looks like there’s one more great reason to grow houseplants: their presence in your workspace might actually make you smarter.

According to a recent study published in The Journal of Environmental Psychology, just having plants in your work space is enough to increase your attention span. An increase in attention span means that we’re able to remember more of what we read. To test the hypotheses, the study’s authors gave subjects a Reading Span Task, which requires reading sentences aloud, then remembering the last word in each sentence. This requires reading, memorization, and recall abilities, and switching between the three.

The researchers had their entire test pool complete Reading Span Tasks to get a baseline reading. Then they moved some of the people to a room with no plants, and others to a room that had four plants around the desk. They were all asked to repeat the Reading Span Tasks, and the people who worked near a plant improved overall, while those without plants stayed roughly the same.

Beauty, fresh air, the joy of caring for another living thing — all great reasons to have a few houseplants around. If they help increase attention spans, all the better!

Read more: Home, Lawns & Gardens, Mental Wellness, Nature, houseplants

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Gary C.

9:31PM PDT on Apr 10, 2012

Thankyou.....

send a green star

Lynn D.

1:41AM PDT on Apr 10, 2012

hmmmmmm.......sounds too good to be true! Thanks for info!

Sandi C.

9:13AM PDT on Apr 7, 2012

noted!

J.L. A.

9:11AM PDT on Apr 7, 2012

intriguing research

Michele W.

12:54PM PDT on Apr 6, 2012

Thank you

Pamela M.

8:49AM PDT on Apr 6, 2012

I love having plants around the house and at work. I try to keep one ine every room as a matter of fact, and they bring me great joy! Thanks for the article!

Danuta W.

2:38AM PDT on Apr 6, 2012

Thanks for the info.

Dale O.

5:28PM PDT on Apr 5, 2012

Lively and intriguing-we should all have a tropical or mini rainforest beside us while doing our work, or lounging in the living room as a pleasing sensation of well-being certainly helps us all.

Love L.

4:30PM PST on Feb 22, 2012

Thank you.