Outdoor physical activity more beneficial for classroom than indoor, study suggests
Bouts of outdoor physical activity enable school pupils to perform better in the classroom than indoor physical activity, a new study suggests.
By Dave Rogers | Published on 30 June 2025
Categories: Press office; Research; School of Science and Technology;
Sports scientists at Nottingham Trent University wanted to understand the potential impact on cognitive function of combining exercise with being outside.
They investigated the cognitive performance of pupils, aged 11-13, following identical indoor and outdoor 30-minute basketball sessions.
Pupils were challenged to a series of cognitive tests measuring executive function including inhibitory control, working memory, and attention before, immediately after, and 45 minutes after physical activity.
The researchers observed improvements in response times and accuracy following outdoor physical activity, when compared to indoor activity.
In one challenge, which uses conflicting stimuli requiring participants to inhibit an automatic response, response time was 94 milliseconds faster following outdoor activity and 20 milliseconds faster following indoor. Accuracy, meanwhile, improved by two percent 45 minutes after outdoor exercise, and 0.1% after indoor.
Short term memory, tested by challenging pupils to recall a series of random letters, improved response time by 34 milliseconds immediately following outdoor activity, and by 69 milliseconds 45-minutes after outdoor physical activity, compared to a slowing in response time at both time points after indoor physical activity.
And attention, which was measured by asking pupils to identify the direction of a central arrow facing in either the same, or a different direction to those either side of it, improved response time by 44 milliseconds 45-minutes after physical activity outdoors, compared to only a 14 millisecond improvement after indoor physical activity.
Previous studies have shown that being outside in nature can help to recover mental resources and increase attentional capacity, which is crucial when performing cognitive tasks.
“We saw superior improvements across all the cognitive domains we assessed, when physical activity was performed outdoors,” said senior author Simon Cooper, Professor of Physical Activity and Health in Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology.
He said: “While cognitive benefits of nature and physical activity have been studied independently, this is the first time such improvements have looked at the effects of the two together and when compared to indoor physical activity.”
Grace Walters, a postdoctoral research fellow at Nottingham Trent University, who led the study, said: “Our research suggests a combined benefit of physical activity and an outdoor environment. The findings support the idea that school-based physical activity should be performed outdoors, where possible. “
A 2023 study at Nottingham Trent University revealed how fittest pupils performed best at cognitive studies.
The latest research is reported in the journal Physiology & Behaviour.
Notes for Editors
Press enquiries please contact Dave Rogers, Public Relations Manager, on telephone +44 (0)115 848 8782, or via email.
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been named UK ‘University of the Year’ five times in six years, (Times Higher Education Awards 2017, The Guardian University Awards 2019, The Times and Sunday Times 2018 and 2023, Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023) and is consistently one of the top performing modern universities in the UK.
It is the 3rd best modern university in the UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023). Students have voted NTU 1st in the UK for student employability (Uni Compare 2025)
NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with over 40,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across six campuses. It has an international student population of almost 7,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.
NTU owns two Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for outstanding achievements in research (2015, 2021). The first recognises NTU’s research on the safety and security of global citizens. The second was awarded for research in science, engineering, arts and humanities to investigate and restore cultural objects, buildings and heritage. The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent.
NTU was awarded GOLD in the national 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) assessment, as it was in 2019.
NTU is a top 10 for sport (British Universities and Colleges Sport league table 2023).
NTU is the most environmentally sustainable university in the UK and second in the world (UI Green Metric University World Rankings, 2023).