Caroline M. Hagerhall

Health Benefits of Nature Experience: Psychological, Social and Cultural Processes

In this chapter we consider how experiences of nature can affect human health and well-being. We first address the matter of ‘what has been’; that is, we sketch the development of theory and research concerned with health benefits of natural environments, from ancient times to the current situation. This shows the current research to be a recent expression of a number of long-running, intertwined, social and cultural processes. We then discuss ‘where we are now’; that is, we overview current theories and related research concerning processes through which nature experience might provide health benefits. These processes concern environmental preferences, psychological restoration, and learning and personal development. Finally, we consider ‘where we are going’; that is, we consider some additional directions for research and we identify some issues that research will have to address in the foreseeable future.

Perceptual and Physiological Responses to Jackson Pollock's Fractals

Fractals have been very successful in quantifying the visual complexity exhibited by many natural patterns, and have captured the imagination of scientists and artists alike. Our research has shown that the poured patterns of the American abstract painter Jackson Pollock are also fractal. This discovery raises an intriguing possibility – are the visual characteristics of fractals responsible for the long-term appeal of Pollocks work? To address this question, we have conducted 10 years of scientific investigation of human response to fractals and here we present, for the first time, a review of this research that examines the inter-relationship between the various results. The investigations include eye tracking, visual preference, skin conductance, and EEG measurement techniques. We discuss the artistic implications of the positive perceptual and physiological responses to fractal patterns.

Analysing Visual Landscape Complexity: Theory and Application

Abstract The experience of landscape has, through the development of the European Landscape Convention, been highlighted as an important aspect to be incorporated in the management and planning of future landscapes. Complexity is a concept that appears in the development of indicators for several landscape functions, including visual quality and biodiversity. In environmental psychology, complexity has been used as an explanatory factor for landscape preference. This paper outlines the factors which constitute the dimensions of complexity perception and how these relate to coherence—a factor which seems to interact with complexity as regards to landscape experience. The paper further explores how indicators of landscape complexity developed within the framework of landscape ecology may be applied and used to capture relevant information on visually experienced landscape complexity. Particular attention is paid to the dimensional transitions which must be considered in order for map based indicators and perceived environmental qualities to be readily related in an applied setting. The paper concludes with some suggested models for how to link landscape indicators with landscape preference in future research.

Tracking Restorative Components: Patterns in Eye Movements as a Consequence of a Restorative Rating Task

Abstract Eye tracking was used to investigate the task of assessing how likely it is that one would be able to rest and recover in small urban spaces and how it affects the view pattern. We assess which environmental components, for example, flowers and trees, participants look at when evaluating restoration likelihood. Further, we compare number of fixations in restorative and non-restorative park photos. Photos were selected based on ratings of low and high likelihood of restoration. Participants were asked to imagine themselves in need of restoration. Photos were presented for 10 seconds each. In contrast to studies adapting a free viewing approach, the present study shows that image properties such as contrast and colour did not attract attention; instead participants looked at components that were of importance for assessing restoration likelihood. The components participants looked at the most were trees, followed by benches and bushes. This presents new information on peoples view patterns in relation to the task of rating restoration likelihood. In addition, relations between the park components at which participants looked the most and the ratings on restoration likelihood were explored. As expected, we found a positive correlation between grass and restoration likelihood. The relations were negative for all other variables, although not significant. The negative relations were rather unexpected, and possible explanations for them are discussed. Finally, we analysed the association between number of fixations and restoration likelihood ratings, and no correlation was found.

Restorative Elements at the Computer Workstation: A Comparison of Live Plants and Inanimate Objects With and Without Window View

The objective of the study was to test whether live plants on computer workstations with and without window view had restorative effects. Guided by Stress Recovery Theory and Attention Restoration Theory a mixed randomized experiment was conducted exploring restorative effects of plants, including mediating effects of perceived fascination. Eighty-five participants carried out a 1-hr work session with repeated tasks demanding directed attention in an office with one of three interior conditions: live plants, inanimate objects and control, all with and without a window view. Plant presence led to greater perceived fascination, but perceived fascination was not related to either self-reported restoration or directed attention capacity. The presence of plants during work did not have superior restorative effects compared with inanimate objects, neither with nor without access to a window view. However, environmental enrichment with either plants or inanimate objects at the computer workstation seemed to provide a restorative potential, which should be investigated further.

Outdoor Environments at Three Nursing Homes: Semantic Environmental Descriptions

Research suggests that the outdoor environment is an important source of variety and change as well as health and well-being for nursing home residents. However, not every outdoor environment has the potential to be a positive resource in the life of older persons at nursing homes, and in this respect we need to study the particular design and content of the outdoor environment. The semantic environmental description (SMB) is a quantitatively based standardized tool intended to systematically describe an environment through assessments of 8 dimensions, namely: pleasantness, complexity, unity, enclosedness, potency, social status, affection, and originality. In this study the SMB was used to compare the outdoor environment of an imagined ideal nursing home and the outdoor environments of 3 existing nursing homes. Furthermore, assessments of an imagined ideal nursing home by pensioners and by nursing home staff were compared. The environment that was the closest to the ideal environment according to the assessments was a park-like environment that was larger and had more variation in vegetation than the other environments. The article concludes by discussing the SMB dimensions in relation to important environmental qualities in nursing home gardens.

Swedish Pasture—An Exploration of Perceptual Attributes and Categorisation

Abstract This study explores the concept of pasture, looking at how people classify it and the features that determine how an image is classified. The analysis is based on two parallel studies that used the same image material. The first study was a web-based survey in which respondents were asked to make a pairwise comparison of the images they felt best corresponded to pasture. The second study used eye-tracking to investigate the elements viewed by respondents as they considered the degree to which images corresponded to pasture. It is found that the respondents had clear and mostly similar concepts of pasture and that they apply these consistently when categorising pasture.

Do humans really prefer semi-open natural landscapes? A cross-cultural reappraisal.

There is an assumption in current landscape preference theory of universal consensus in human preferences for moderate to high openness in a natural landscape. This premise is largely based on empirical studies of urban Western populations. Here we examine for the first time landscape preference across a number of geographically, ecologically and culturally diverse indigenous populations. Included in the study were two urban Western samples of university students (from southern Sweden) and five non-Western, indigenous and primarily rural communities: Jahai (Malay Peninsula), Lokono (Suriname), Makalero (Timor), Makasae (Timor), and Wayuu (Colombia). Preference judgements were obtained using pairwise forced choice assessments of digital visualizations of a natural landscape varied systematically on three different levels of topography and vegetation density. The results show differences between the Western and non-Western samples, with interaction effects between topography and vegetation being present for the two Swedish student samples but not for the other five samples. The theoretical claim of human preferences for half-open landscapes was only significantly confirmed for the student sample comprising landscape architects. The five non Western indigenous groups all preferred the highest level of vegetation density. Results show there are internal similarities between the two Western samples on the one hand, and between the five non-Western samples on the other. To some extent this supports the idea of consensus in preference, not universally but within those categories respectively.

The Euler character: a new type of visual landscape metric?

Landscape-preference theories such as prospect-refuge theory and Kaplan and Kaplans landscape-preference matrix and theories of visual perception propose that the physical structure of the landscape has a direct psychological effect on people due to evolved sensitivity to particular defining characteristics. Efforts to identify consistent quantitative relationships between metrics of these characteristics and human preference have had some success. However, the field has also faced some criticisms due to low explanatory power in the results reducing confidence that relationships found can be applied to other contexts. In this paper we argue that dependence on generalised planar maps for the derivation of the metrics but on viewpoint-specific perspective photographs for the preference data is a potential cause of low explanatory power. How viewpoint change may affect scene characteristics needs to be better understood if representative viewpoints are to be chosen to allow results which are general to an area, in particular the difference between discreet (topological) changes and continuous changes. This paper presents the results of an experiment to test whether the topological complexity of a view, as measured by the Euler character of the horizon graph, has perceptual significance. We investigate if images with higher horizon-graph complexity were considered more interesting than those with lower graph complexity via a forced-choice Internet survey.