High Educ

DOI 10.1007/s10734-015-9926-2

Taking your mind for a walk: a qualitative investigation

of walking and thinking among nine Norwegian
academics
Mia Keinanen1

 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Abstract Walking has long been associated with thinking. Anecdotal evidence from
philosophers, writers, researchers, artists, business leaders and so forth testify to the powers
of walking-for-thinking. This study explores walking-for-thinking among nine academics
in Norway, four university professors, two research and development professionals, two
researchers and a university president, who utilize walking-for-thinking as an explicit
practice in the their professional lives. Based on in-depth semi-structured qualitative
interviews, the study identifies walking-for-thinking as a specific form of walking that has
a steady rhythm and a specific individual speed that is experienced as most conducive to
thinking. Further, the subjects experience walking-for-thinking as moving gestalt, an
interplay between the person, environment and thinking where the rhythms of the body
correlate with the rhythm of walking, affording feeling of enhanced memory and creativity.
It is suggested that walking-for-thinking should be regarded as a an alternative space for
inquiry especially today when sitting has been identified as an independent health hazard
and when sedentary workers are urged to look for alternative ways of working that include
more movement.
Keywords

Academics
Walking
Thinking
Optimal speed

Introduction
Walking has long been associated with intellectual pursuits. Aristotle held his lectures
while walking about in Athens, hence the name Peripatetic school (Peripatetic = walking
about) that his group of scholars was called (Athamatten 2012; Gros 2014). Nietzsche was
an avid walker and has famously stated: Only those thoughts that come by walking have

& Mia Keinanen

keinanmi@gmail.com
1

Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Sognsveien 220, 0863 Oslo, Norway

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any value (Nietzsche 2007, p. 9). Thomas Hobbes had a walking stick with a built-in
inkwell so that he could write when inspiration struck him during his walks (Solnit 2001).
Today, for example, Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple, and the founder of Twitter Jack
Dorsey have cited long solitary walks as important tools for thinking (Isaacson 2011; Max
2013). Kahneman talks about how he and his collaborator Tversky conducted much of their
research while walking together, we didnt need a lab (Winerman 2012, p. 24) and how
he suspects that the mild physical arousal of a walk may spill over into greater mental
awareness (Kahnemann 2011, p. 39).
But why would walking enhance thinking and awareness? Recent research offers some
suggestions. A handful of empirical studies indicate that walking enhances cognition in
terms of memory (Labonte-LeMoyne et al. 2015; Schaefer et al. 2010), divergent thinking
(Oppezzo and Schwarz 2014), and cognitive control (Hillman et al. 2009), prevents cognitive decline in the elderly (Erickson et al. 2011; Weuve et al. 2004), when in nature,
reduces stress (Aspinall et al. 2013; Jin 1992; Morita et al. 2007), improves mood (Lee
et al. 2001; Sakuragi and Sugiyama 2006) and enhances creativity (Atchley et al. 2012).
While these studies offer evidence for the effects of walking on cognition, in-depth
understanding of walking-for-thinking specifically for intellectual work purposes (e.g., not
leisure or fitness) from the point of view of the walkers themselves is still lacking. I
identified no qualitative studies investigating walking-for-thinking in the context of
intellectual work. An academic and a walker myself, I was especially interested in how
academics might use this method to complement their academic pursuits. Indeed, academics think for a living (Davenport 2005) and there is a constant need to cultivate
thinking, which is often difficult considering the multitude of responsibilities and tasks
academics need to juggle (Murray 2013). Further motivation for deeper investigation of
walking-for-thinking was the emerging research of the deleterious health effects of sitting
(Levine 2010; Owen et al. 2009; Patel et al. 2010; Veerman et al. 2011; Wilmot et al.
2012). Clearly, being able to move more while working would be of benefit to academics,
who are often tied to their desks. Ultimately, however, it is only if the work also gets done
that any movement practice will be adapted.
Thus, I conducted an in-depth qualitative study on the experiences of nine academics
who walk-for-thinking and who recognize this process as an important contributor to their
academic work. Indeed, qualitative methods are well suited for investigating a phenomenon whose concepts have not yet been identified fully, or whose concepts are poorly
understood or conceptually undeveloped, allowing me to build theory grounded on rich
data on walking-for-thinking among academics (Strauss and Corbin 1998).

Method
Sample
The sample was nine individuals from Norway. The sampling criteria were as follows: (1)
The individual has a regular walking practice that theyve maintained for at least 5 years;
(2) the individual is an established professional working in the knowledge industry; and (3)
the individual identifies walking as an important contributor to their thinking within this
profession. The subjects were identified through recommendations from colleagues and
friends. Additionally, interview subjects were asked whether they knew of colleagues who
intentionally practiced walking for work purposes. Thus, the snowballing method was

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utilized to recruit participants (Henry 1990). The sample included four university professors, two research and development professionals, two researchers and a university
president. Three of the interviewees were women and six men. All of the subjects had
practiced walking-for-thinking at least 10 years.

Data collection and analysis

The method of collection of empirical data was in-depth interviews. The form of the
interviews was a semi-structured standardized interview format: Prefigured questions were
posed for all participants in the same order (Rossman and Rallis 1998). The interviews
lasted 11.5 h, except for that of the university president, which lasted 30 min due to his
very tight professional schedule. The interviews were recorded and fully transcribed by the
author.
I examined the interview data for themes, theme patterns and the relationships between
themes (Maxwell 1996; Miles and Huberman 1994). In the analysis, I employed both
categorization analysis and contextualized analysis techniques. The codes were derived
from both the conceptual structure of the subjects (emic categories) as well as from my
own conceptual structure that was developed in response to the data (etic categories)
(Strauss and Corbin 1998).

Validity
As is the nature of qualitative research, each persons experience is unique and cannot be
generalized to a wider population. The nine subjects are from a specific culture, Norway,
where walking outdoors is a cultural norm. The subjects were academics and have thus a
propensity to reflect. Subjects from a different culture or domain might talk about the
phenomena very differently. However, for the purposes of this study, the sampling strategy
allowed me to locate a panel of experts (Weiss 1994) who are distinctively informative
about the topic. Strong common themes emerged, and after nine comprehensive and deep
interviews that revealed similar findings, I deemed the data collection complete. Finally,
throughout the analysis, I looked for alternative understandings, as well as discrepant data,
that might challenge my interpretations and conclusions. The subjects have approved the
quotes utilized here.

Findings and discussion

A specific type of walking
Only one of the interviewees was specifically inspired by an explicit tradition of walkingfor-thinking, namely that of the Greek philosophers. A philosophy professor himself, he
decided to try it out and found it immediately beneficial. Now he uses walking not only for
thinking but also for reading, both of which he has been practicing for 30 plus years. All
other subjects started walking for reasons other than thinking. They started to walk to
improve fitness and to recover from injury or illness, or theyd simply continue a habit they
had acquired in childhood. All, however, noted that their thinking was affected in some
way.

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I found out that something interesting was happening in my head. This walking
thinking, it is more deep or something. (Jon)
It is quite clear to me that to the extent that I ever get ideas, I get them when I am
walking or when I am running. (Ole Petter)
My best ideas, I have when I walk, and when I have the time to do that. (Kristian)
I found it afforded a kind of concentrated relaxation. Verykind of deep slow
feeling. It is a kind of slow frequency activity of thoughts coming to you. (Per)
I noticed with my inventions that if you have something you want to solve, just walk,
continue and continue. I walk for stimulation, to stimulate thinking. Almost 90 % of
my inventions, 156 patent cases that are public and 30 which are not public, were
created around Sognsvann, walking and thinking. (Ziad)
I found that while walking it is somehow easier to solve problems, your thinking is
on the move as well. (Ida)
When walking, I felt like I am in the middle of my thoughts and you can call on
thoughts. I think that is the feeling that I have been trying to cultivate through years
of walking, this sort of symmetry between the bodily feeling and feeling of thinking.
I think there many different kinds of walking, and this is a very specific type of
walking. (Sara)
I started walking and I felt that my thoughts were calmer and it was easier for me to
concentrate. (Torill)
The kind of walking that Sara identifies as a very specific type of walking is not
exercise for the subjects involved, which is a specific distinction they all made.1 Through
specific walking-for-thinking, the subjects gained access to their thoughts rather than
simply better aerobic shape. A key component of walking determined whether or not the
subjects felt that walking afforded this access: the rhythm and speed of the walk.

Rhythm and speed

When describing their experiences of walking, the subjects often mentioned that it was a
particular rhythm of walking that they found most conducive to their thinking.
I find the process of walkingthe rhythm of breathing and the heart rate is a sort
of mantra, or you come into not trance of course, but a mindset where things work
together. (Gunnar)
When I start to walk it is a very nice feeling, it takes like five minutes and then I am
in the rhythm of being on my way. (Ida)
What I find interesting with this project that I started ten years ago, is just this feeling
of coming into this rhythm and letting the thinking just happen. (Jon)
My speed is a speed where I feel like the body is moving in a kind of rhythm.
(Kristian)
You have to have a moderate pace. That is at least what works for me. (Ole Petter)
When the thoughts start to go, the body slows down to a rhythm that corresponds
somehow to your thinking. (Per)
I like to walk in a defined rhythm. (Ziad)
I find that when my thoughts are more focused after a while and when I have decided
on what to think about, I often speed up a little so my walking is a bit accelerated but

This finding is further explored in another paper.

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I do keep the same rhythm from that time and onwards. So its like the body finds the
right rhythm while my mind also experiences the same thing. (Torill)
I think it is also be dependent of me holding a certain rhythm and pace. It feels like
the thought generation is dependent on me bodily moving forwards. (Sara)
Slavin (2003) investigated walking as a spiritual practice and identified the rhythm of a
walk as one of the three salient features contributing to the meditative experience of
walking. Also for the subjects of this study, walking in a steady rhythm afforded a specific
mindset. The stimulation of the rhythm of the walk seemed to work in two directions.
Either the subjects found a certain rhythm to their thoughts and then their walking either
sped up or slowed down to correspond to their thinking. Or they first found a walking
rhythm that then stimulated the rhythm of their thoughts. When asked what that rhythm
was, the answer from all subjects was along the lines of Not too fast, not too slow as
Ziad described it. Ziad continues:
I need to have normal breathing. I cannot be out of breath. Not slow, not fast. That is
the optimal speed for me.
Indeed, all subjects were careful to describe a very specific speed that many name their
optimal speed that was superior for their thinking. All subjects have paid close attention
to the speed; they have measured it or can at least describe this speed quite precisely.
The time I think it took me to walk one kilometer it was about 12 minutes, 13 or
12 minutes, something in between there but it was always exact. That was the
optimal speed. (Kristian)
I use about 35 minutes around Sognsvann and Sognsvann is around 3.4 km. That is
my optimal speed. (Ziad)
I have measured my pace. It is about 13 min per kilometer. (Torill)
So I decided walk every day to work, which is about 45 min, twice a day. The
distance is 4.6 km each way. (Per)
In general I think I have a speed that is relatively stable. I think so. So when I am
sitting I think I generally have a pulse of about 50 heart beats a minute, so thats why
I am guessing it is 60 to 70 beats a minute when I am walking. (Gunnar)
For this deep thinking, the speed is for me from 5 to 6 km an hour. (Jon)
The most efficient pace is between 8 and 10 km an hour, something like that. That is
the best window. (Ole Petter)
Quick calculation reveals that the speed for the walkers was around 56 km an hour. Ole
Petter often prefers to run, and thus, at 8 km per hour or 7.5 min per kilometer, his speed
can be considered a light jog. And, while Ida has a clear preference for a certain rhythm in
her walk, she has not measured her speed because she has never been that interested in
counting; thats why I am a qualitative researcher. (laughter). Variations in speed aside,
the interesting finding is the fact that each and every subject recognizes and identifies their
own optimal walking speed for their thinking. Indeed, the subjects report that if they walk
slower or faster than their optimal speed, their thinking ceased.
I used my watch to see ok, how fast did I walk here. So I found out that it took about
55 minutes. Then I started to compete with myself, can I walk any faster? Ok, I just
try that. Then after a while I got it down to 48, 47 minutes. And then I recognized
that if I went faster than 50 minutes, I stopped thinking! Yes, thinking went away,
and I think then it was the body, and not the brain. Because the pace was too high, so

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I concentrated on it in order to go faster. So I just slowed down again and I said, ok

dont compete. Because then it is too fast, and then the rhythm is not right. (Jon)
It is my experience that it is not well advised to really exert oneself in top speed
because then your concentration is focused in all other things not least how to keep
up the speed. (Ole Petter)
I cannot think while running, I am more absorbed by trying to run. But it is not really
slow walking either, it cannot be strolling. (Torill)
I have experimented with the pace but for me there is a sort of a maximum speed
where I can enjoy the process and absorb. So it mustnt be too fast, then I notice that
I get more concentrated on the walking, and the speed, and so, they are obstacles. It
is not so clear that there is a minimal speed, but it seems so. (Gunnar)
I do not walk very fast, I mean I am not power walking. But it cant be strolling
either because then for me the outside world gets in too much. Then I dont get into
the rhythm. I dont feel my body enough. So thats the paradox right, like I have to
feel my body, but not too much (laughter). (Sara)
It is feels a little fast, but I do not get sweaty or But when I go slow, I dont get this
stimuli. (Ziad)
If you are pushing yourself, then you have to concentrate yourself on pushing
yourself, so then focus is on the activity. If you can relax into this kind of slow
jogging, it would be the same. You dont have to think about the running, so if you
are in good shape, it is ok to do that jogging too. It works maybe in a similar way.
(Per)
According to the subjects, the optimal speed is a speed when your body is engaged and
stimulated, but not overly taxed. This experience corresponds closely with the optimal gait
for minimal metabolic energy expenditure identified by dynamic optimization of walking
studies which find that when the pelvis, joints and legs are optimally aligned, the metabolic
expenditure reaches its lowest level at 80 m per minute speed (4.8 km/h) and that it is
higher before and after (Ralston 1976). However, the optimal speed could also be
influenced by each individuals cardiovascular fitness level, i.e., the higher the level, the
higher the zone where one feels comfortable. Ole Petter is, in fact, a former marathon skier
and is accustomed to physically strenuous activity. Thus, he is able to relax into slow
jogging as Per described, without his body becoming overly taxed. Similarly, according
to the subjects, when walking too slowly, the body does not get stimulated enough and the
outside world gets in too much, as Sara put it. Per and Jon explain further what letting
the outside world in too much might mean.
Then it is just walking, you can look at the birds or say hello to people you meet or
whatever. It is not as intense. It is just walking around looking at people pushing
babies in a pram, looking at the river and so forth. Thats just relaxing. It has very
little to do with this other type of walking for thinking. (Per)
Another kind of walking is if one is interested in art or architecture, so walking in
Rome for example, just experiencing this fantastic buildings and talking about them
and so on. That is a very different way of walking. Because that is taking in the
outside, you know, and processing and thinking about it and maybe talking about it.
And that is something completely different. (Jon)
Thus, it seems that actively interacting with the environment either by talking to others, by
processing what one sees, or by even actively noticing things was intrusive for the state the
subjects were after. However, when walking at their optimal speed, the steady rhythm of

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the subjects walk and their perceptions afforded the subjects just the right amount of
physical and perceptual stimulation that in the subjects experience enhanced their
thinking.
There may be several reasons for this. First, repetitive movement may help us focus. In
our media-filled fractured world, multitasking is becoming a norm. Yet, research indicates
that multitasking is always harmful for our thinking (Edwards and Gronlund 1998; Fox
et al. 2009; Ophir et al. 2009), except in cases of simple movement (doodling, walking) in
combination with cognitive tasks (memory) (Andrade 2010; Schaefer et al. 2010). Thus,
there is some evidence that simple repetitive movement may help in focusing attention
rather than distracting it. Meditation uses the repetition of a mantra or slow walking to help
meditators stay present and focused. Brain-based studies of meditators by EEG report
increased alpha power and decreased theta power activity in the brain (Cahn and Polich
2006) and by fMRI less mind wandering and more attentional stability when meditating
(Pagnoni 2012). A good memory performance is correlated with such brain states (Klimesch 1999; Sonuga-Barke and Castellanos 2007). Indeed, Labonte-LeMoyne et al. (2015)
found that treadmill walking enhanced participants memory and attention as well as
stimulating more alpha activity in the brain (measured by EEG), which might be what the
walkers are benefitting from.
Secondly, we know that aerobic activity enhances cognition by increasing blood flow
and neurotransmitter activity and decreasing stress hormones in the brain (Ferris et al.
2007; Hillman et al. 2008; Salmon 2001). Low-to-moderate-intensity exercise is aerobic.
Thus, the subjects mental stimulation is spurred by the aerobic activity they are involved
in. Further, there is some evidence for a common optimal zone for energetic and cognitive
systems (Brisswalter et al.1995). As the subjects of this study strongly identified, we may
all have an individual walking speed that is most conducive for thinking; too slow does not
provide the optimal physical stimulation, and too fast is energetically too costly, hindering
the cognitive functions. The salient task is to pay attention and find ones own speed where
thinking flourishes.

Thinking as a place
Steady rhythm and speed of the subjects walk stirred their thoughts and immersed them in
a field of novel perceptions and stimuli that gave rise to new, perhaps previously unknown,
inner perspectives and thoughts. Sara describes this as follows:
I think the nice thing about it is that you feel like you are moving in this sea of, I
dont even know what it is since it is not thoughts, it is sort of like knowledge. I feel
like I am in it, in this kind of weird abstract world of what the things I have read, the
things I have thought while reading. It is not even anything concrete but a sort of
state of remembering and sparking new connections, being aware, half aware, fully
aware, it mixes. I think of it as a state, but I also think about it geographically, that
you are in a place where all this knowledge surrounds you in these weird more or less
solid shapes, you know, so you can sort of summon this book and this argument and
this thought, and this writing that you linked to that author, and it is all available to
you. You are in the middle of it and you can call on thoughts.
Sara talks about thinking while walking as a place. In this place, Sara has access to all
her knowledge, new and old, literal and abstract. Indeed, the way the interviewees describe
the processes of thought and/or thinking when walking as very spatial.

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So emotionally I think we can get stuck like that, so I think walking and being in a
landscape means that you are in a traveling, moving position and you have light,
actually light from the sky and from the environment throwing new light on your
problems and things are changing, you really experience the environment as a
process when you walk. (Gunnar)
So I get another view, and the first word that pops into my head then when I see this
view is perspective. I then try to transmit that word perspective from my visual
impression of the view that I see to the work or problem that I have in my mind. So I
think, ok, what does perspective mean in terms of what I am thinking about right now
(Torill).
I go behind my thoughts you know. They go in front, I am after them, and then I
catch them! (Laughter) There are a lot of different models and ideas. And you know,
is it like this or like that, and then you streamline your thoughts. When you
streamline your thoughts you feel in control. And you feel the possibility. Like the
sky is the limit. (Ziad)
Often when discussing problem-solving, we reference space by talking about walking
around a problem, seeing from a new perspective and so forth. Internally, we move
through, weigh, reference and compare. The subjects talked about thinking similarly while
literally moving through landscape. Further, the subjects talked about memory in spatial
terms, either in terms of embodied concept or surrounding environment.
It has to do with the, I dont know so much about the sensory state of the body, but I
think that it is this body memory, that is stimulated in a way. You know, we have a
lot of memories and histories in my body that just are there since I was a child, they
are just hidden in my fingers and in my legs, I like to think that way. So when I am
walking it is more like my life is stimulated, my life is more stimulated than when
just sitting. (Ida)
I remember certain places, we used walk a lot in Srkedalen where my parents have a
cabin, and I remember certain places, you know, where I was thinking something
really hard, or where I finally kind of managed to remember that particular line or
things like that. It is sort of like multi-sensorial thing I think. I guess memory is an
embodied thing. (Sara)
In many other cases you do not remember what kind of situation you were when you
read this and that book, whether it was in the office or on the sofa at home. But this is
very important, that with some of the very difficult books I remember very well not
only the book but also exactly where I was walking when reading the book. (Gunnar)
I noticed the words I learned while walking they stayed in my head, they sat in my
brain. Also I do not take notes when I walk. I remember my ideas. (Ziad)
I do not write things down while I am walking. You remember the most important
stuff, you dont get lost in a lot of details. It is so clear in my head. (Torill)
Thus, there seems to be an interesting connection between space, memory and walking in
the experience of the subjects. Walking somehow stimulated the subjects memory so that
they could remember things more easily.
Remembering where they were spatially when they learned something difficult or made
discoveries is a specific example of an interplay between the person, environment and
thinking. A well-known memorization technique, the method of loci, utilizes this kind of
approach through imagery. It relies on imagined spatial relationships to establish, order and
recollect memories. Specifically, one imagines a physical space, such as a house, and then

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assigns items that one wants to remember to various objects in the house. The idea, then, is
that one can remember these items by walking through the house, in the order in which
their places were assigned. It has been documented that subjects remember significantly
more this way (Rebok and Balcerak 1989) and that individuals with superior memories are
not more intelligent or have different brain structures but, rather, use spatial learning
strategies (Parasuraman and Rizzo 2007). Perhaps by walking outdoors, the subjects
implicitly utilized this type of spatial memory technique and thus experienced enhanced
memory. Further, as is proposed by theories of embodied cognition, our perception is
movement-internalized; our organism has developed through using senses and movement
to read the environment (crawling on the ground) to being able to read the environment
entirely visually and cognitively through the eyes and brain without much movement
(Wilson 2002). Thus, it could be said that, for the mind, walking is simultaneously an act of
walking through the problem or concepts that we are grappling with, as much as it is about
the body moving through a landscape, while thought just happens to be taking place. It is a
walk through a field of knowledge both literally and figuratively. In this way, the act of
walking, particularly when it is coupled with intense study or thinking, could literally stir
ones thinking processes, even though we have come to understand and appreciate it as
just a bodily or purely physical activity.

Moving gestalt
Finding ones own personal rhythm and speed was the key for the interviewees to get into a
state where they felt they could access and order their knowledge. When in his optimal
speed and rhythm, Gunnar experiences the following:
The breathing, the heart, the phase of walking, it feels very, it is a combination of
being relaxed and at the same time you are very focused. And at the same time you
have the atmosphere of the landscape, of the surroundings also interact with you, not
always consciously but it is there as a part of the gestalt that you remember afterwards, you remember the walking, the environment, your thoughts. It becomes like
this moving gestalt. (Gunnar)
Thus, in addition to the visual stimulation from the environment and the rhythmic
movement of walking, Gunnar experiences his breathing and heartbeat as a part of the
gestalt. Also, other subjects referred to some kind of physiological synchronization
while at their optimal speed.
I believe it has to do with transportation of oxygen to the brain. You have a certain
point, x-amount of energy to the brain and something happens. If I walk very slowly,
nothing, I dont feel this stimuli. (Ziad)
Usually after quarter of an hour, twenty minutes, it never happens right away,
unfortunately, but after 1520 min is the most creative phase. This might very well
have something to do with the metabolic shifts that occur during exercise. Admittedly, I do not know whether there is any evidence for this conjecture. (Ole Petter)
One day I noticed that there were signs every 100 meters, so I had to check how
many steps do I do in 100 meters, and I found that it was 134 steps. And I was
fascinated by the fact that it was the same, 134, 134. Further I wondered how many
steps I walk during 60 s. The same happened. Always 105 steps. So I thought, I
wonder what my pulse is now, my heart rhythm. So I checked, and was amazed to
find out that it was 105. So, it was my heart rhythm! (Kristian)

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Alongside the physiological synchronization, interviewees experienced enhanced creativity and access to inner life.
I think you have to get up a little bit in movement, because it has to do with your
inner life I think thats the point, it is some kind of physical thing and at the same
time psychological. (Jon)
That is the speed when I feel like I have, yeah, something happens, a connection
between my creative part and my logistic part are really working together. I never sit
down and lets just think about this and try and find a solution. That seldom works.
I dont do that. So I have to, I think I need the walk, to get the mind going. If I sit
down and start to thinkit is like the creative part needs movement, in a way.
(Kristian)
I think that you have a sort of a catalyzing effect, it is a catalysis that is happening.
My subjective experience is that there are mechanisms that suppress creativity and
that these inhibitory mechanisms are released when you are out jogging or walking.
(Ole Petter)
This is what I think the feeling is about: it is to permit these ideas to just come. To be
able to have them to flow into your mind. But it is not flowing kind of loosely in your
mind, it is kind of looking for connections. It is loose and associative, it is like you
are testing a hundred different things, and all of a sudden, pow (clap), you get a
connection. (Per)
So I think the rhythm is important because it makes this sort of connection between
the physical sort of actual flesh me and the thought me less, they melt more. It
didnt feel like I was doing one thing and then another thing. It felt like it was more
together. (Sara)
Creative processes have been identified to have four phases: preparation, incubation,
insight and verification (Csikszentmihalyi 1988, 1996; Gardner 1993; Wallas 1926).
Walking has been suggested as an especially good activity for the incubation phase
because it gives the mind an opportunity to relax and lets the unconscious work on the
problem, which is essential for insight to appear (Baird et al. 2012; Csikszentmihalyi 1988,
1996; Kahnemann 2011). Indeed, as Ole Petter mentions, it is hypothesized that a
phenomenon called latent inhibition is related to creative or lateral thinking (Carson et al.
2003). Latent inhibition refers to the minds capacity to deal with incoming information.
High latent inhibition means the incoming information to the brain is limited, while low
latent inhibition means that the brain has access to more incoming information. Low latent
inhibition is correlated with creativity because it allows the brain to take in more
information and to combine it in novel ways. Low latent inhibition is also correlated with
increased dopamine levels (Flaherty 2005). Aerobic exercise increases dopamine levels
and thus potentially lowers latent inhibition enabling more assimilation and absorption of
stimuli. Oppezzos and Schwarz (2014) experimental study lends evidence to this effect of
walking. They found that walking significantly increased participants creative or divergent
thinking and that this effect was independent of whether the participants walked outside or
inside on the treadmill, which indicates that it is really the act of walking, rather than
features of the outdoors, that stimulated the creative thinking. In the experience of the
subjects, the rhythm of the walk further synchronizes with the rhythms inherently present
in the body such as breath and heart rate, melting boundaries between the body and the
mind, the creative mind and logistic mind, inducing a feeling of holistically aligned
moving gestalt.

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Concluding remarks
Walking-for-thinking has long roots in and high potential for scholarship. The results of
this study indicate that for the subjects of this study, there is a specific type of walking-forthinking that is separate from other types of walking. This walking has an optimal speed
that synchronizes rhythms of the walk and body with thinking and vice versa. With this
synchronization, the subjects experienced enhanced thought processes and memory. Thus,
walking-for-thinking in academia could be viewed as a potent work method that also has
health benefits.
Further research, qualitative and quantitative, should systematically investigate the
different aspects of enhanced thinking experienced by the walkers of this study. For
example, larger randomized controlled studies of memory and different cognitive tasks
while walking versus sitting or standing (real time, not retroactively) can help clarify what
type of tasks walking enhances, and what not. Further, quantitative measures of oxygen
intake, exertion level, heart rate and number of steps and speed while experiencing the
enhanced state of thinking could be illuminating, giving more specifics for what is
described here qualitatively. Larger samples in different cultures are called for in order to
gain a balanced perspective of walking-for-thinking in different cultures. Lastly, we should
follow up on the various social and cultural dimensions that might hinder us going out and
taking our minds for a walk.
Conflict of interest The author declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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