Facilitating creative thinking in the classroom: investigating the effects of plants and the colour green on visual and verbal creativity

We report upon a study concerned with the effect of exposure to live plants, views to nature and the colour green upon visual and verbal creativity. The study reported in this paper was undertaken with 108 business students at a British University who were randomly allocated to one of the three conditions. The control group were placed in a classroom with no plants present and blinds drawn to block view to natural settings, the first experimental group were placed in a classroom with no plants present, blinds drawn to block views to nature but completed the creativity tasks on green paper. The second experimental group were placed in the same room as the other groups, but were surrounded by live plants and had views to nature through the large classroom windows. All participants completed two creativity tasks; a visual creativity task and a verbal creativity task. Visual creativity was assessed using a modified version of Amabile's Consensual Assessment Technique (Amabile, 1982). Verbal creative was assessed using a modified scoring method of Guilford's alternative uses task developed by Silvia (2008). Findings indicate that access to natural views, plants and the colour green increase visual creativity, but have no impact on verbal creativity in classroom settings. The results suggest that creativity is domain specific and any practical measures taken to enhance creativity need to be aligned with the target domain

High-resolution photoelectron spectrometry of atomic manganese from the region of the 3p→3d giant resonance to 120 eV

Partial photoionization cross sections sigma of the 3d and the 4s main lines and the major satellite lines following the photoionization of atomic manganese in the vicinity of the 3p -- \u3e 3d giant resonance are studied in detail using the constant-ionic-state technique. Previously unresolved features are seen, revealing the complex structure of this transition-metal atom. Evidence for seven excited states hidden in the giant-resonance region is uncovered. Widths of most of the observed excited states are deduced. The width of the dominant [Ne]3s(2)3p(5)3(d)64s2(6P) state is found to be at most 1.5 eV. The origin of a pronounced dip in the partial cross section of the primary 3d photoionization line, which also appears in absorption, is identified. More than 15 resonance features converging to the [Ne]3s(2)3p(5)3d(5)4s2(P-7(4,3,2)) limits are observed, and tentative assignments are given. In addition, nonresonant photoelectron spectra recorded from 80 to 120 eV photon energy are examined to determine the behavior of the strongest photoelectron satellite lines and very-high-lying binding energy satellites, which, until now have not been investigated

The Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC) and Its Effect on the Quality-of-Life (QOL) of Destination Community

This chapter examines the connection between tourism area life cycle (TALC) and its effects on the quality-of-life (QOL) of destination communities. We posit that as destinations go through structural changes over time, the extent to which the dynamics of change affect the QOL of the resident community varies with the stages of the life cycle. The chapter consists of four major sections. After a brief introduction, the first section presents the concept of TALC and describes the development phases and the indicators that help understand tourism area development. The second section provides a brief discussion on the impact of tourism on the community in relation to TALC, which is then followed by the third section which focuses on the adjustment to change and maintaining the QOL of the community. Section four reviews related literature to support the relation between TALC and QOL of communities. The chapter ends with delineating critical issues for future research, outlining some of the difficulties moving forward, and formulating relevant policy implications that may help the researchers and destination management organizations to further examine the issues that may surround TALC and QOL connections