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Cited by 553

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 75 of the 75 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking.

Oppezzo, Marily, Schwartz, Daniel L.·2014·Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

Abstract

Four experiments demonstrate that walking boosts creative ideation in real time and shortly after. In Experiment 1, while seated and then when walking on a treadmill, adults completed Guilford's alternate uses (GAU) test of creative divergent thinking and the compound remote associates (CRA) test of convergent thinking. Walking increased 81% of participants' creativity on the GAU, but only increased 23% of participants' scores for the CRA. In Experiment 2, participants completed the GAU when seated and then walking, when walking and then seated, or when seated twice. Again, walking led to higher GAU scores. Moreover, when seated after walking, participants exhibited a residual creative boost. Experiment 3 generalized the prior effects to outdoor walking. Experiment 4 tested the effect of walking on creative analogy generation. Participants sat inside, walked on a treadmill inside, walked outside, or were rolled outside in a wheelchair. Walking outside produced the most novel and highest quality analogies. The effects of outdoor stimulation and walking were separable. Walking opens up the free flow of ideas, and it is a simple and robust solution to the goals of increasing creativity and increasing physical activity.

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Metadata

Authors
Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L.
Venue
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Published
2014
Volume
40
Issue
4
Pages
1142-1152
ISSN
  • 0278-7393 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1285
OpenAlex
W2136745390
Cited by
553
References
75
FWCI
45.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037/a0036577
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Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036577

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