HARMONYTo measure the impact of these different scenes, the researchers
asked a group of students to perform a concentration task. Random
numbers were flashed on a screen, and the students had to press a but-
ton as soon as they saw the number. But they had to hold back when the
number was 3. They had less than a second to react, and they had to do
it 225 times in a row. It’s a hard task that requires a great deal of con-
centration and motivation to get it right. The researchers asked the stu-
dents to do the task twice, with a 40-second “microbreak” in between.
Students who looked at the picture of flowers and grass between
the first and second trials made fewer errors than those who looked at
the concrete roof. The researchers speculated that the most likely expla-
nation for the difference was that the natural scene stimulated both
“sub-cortical arousal” (desire dopamine) and “cortical attention con-
trol” (control dopamine). A reporter from the Washington Post who com-
mented on the study noted that “urban rooftops covered with grasses,
plants and other types of greenery are becoming increasingly popular
around the world... [Facebook] recently installed a massive 9-acre
green roof at its office in Menlo Park, California.” That approach to
architecture, using H&N stimulation to activate dopamine, is not only
good for the soul—it may also be good for the bottom line.
... BUT DON’T TRY TO MULTITASK
Almost any experience is improved by paying full attention to it.
—Kelly McGonigal, Lecturer in Management,
Stanford School of BusinessIn spite of what technology addicts may believe, multitasking, or paying
attention to more than one thing at a time, is impossible. When you
attempt to do more than one thing, such as talking on the telephone
while reading an email, you shift your attention between the tasks, and
end up compromising on both. Sometimes you pause while reading the
email to listen to the person on the phone; other times you stop listening