−25%
indoor plants cut students' choice reaction times by a quarter
Exact: from 589.5 ms to 439.1 ms
Choice reaction time improved from 589.5 ms to 439.1 ms with indoor plants
Choice response time (CRT), which requires selecting among multiple stimuli, averaged 589.5 milliseconds without plants and 439.1 milliseconds with plants in the post-renovation classroom. The reduction indicates that indoor plants support faster cognitive processing and decision-making, complementing the thermal comfort improvements from the renovation.
the average response time for simple tasks decreasing from 527.9 milliseconds to 301.4 milliseconds and for choice tasks, from 589.5 milliseconds to 439.1 milliseconds.
Related findings
90%
people in modern societies spend nine-tenths of their time indoors in built environments
Modern humans spend about 90% of their time indoors
Tonia Gray et al., 2014, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
82.0%
high perceived impact of environmental design on children's behavioral and academic outcomes
Inclusive architectural design is perceived to strongly support behavioral and academic outcomes for children with neurodevelopmental disorders
Heba M. Abdou et al., 2026, Architecture
90%
people spend most of their lives indoors
People spend nearly 90% of their time indoors
Hessa Humaid Aljarwan Alshamsi et al., 2026, Indoor and Built Environment
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Where the evidence on classroom air, acoustics, light and green is robust, where it is thin, and what to measure before the build.
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