Fact · Dictation for work and study
In Experiment 4 of the 2014 walking study, walking outside produced the most novel and highest quality analogies, compared with sitting inside, walking inside on a treadmill, or being rolled outside in a wheelchair.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“Walking outside produced the most novel and highest quality analogies.”
Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking, Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2014, Abstract, Experiment 4.
Open the original (DOI 10.1037/a0036577)- What it measures
- Participants sat inside, walked on a treadmill inside, walked outside, or were rolled outside in a wheelchair, and then generated analogies. The wheelchair condition separated the effect of being outdoors from the effect of walking.
- What it does not show
- Analogy generation is a short idea task. The sample was small and mostly university students, and the study does not measure drafting or dictation.