Inhaltszusammenfassung

Nature can benefit human well-being and cognitive function. Merely watching images of nature compared to urban scenes, which differ in many lower-level processed properties, can have such effects. In two studies, we investigated the roles of lower- and higher-level processing on restorative effects evoked by nature and urban-related stimuli. In addition to nature and urban photographs, we used 1) versions that lack spatial information but retain certain image properties including those on reg...Nature can benefit human well-being and cognitive function. Merely watching images of nature compared to urban scenes, which differ in many lower-level processed properties, can have such effects. In two studies, we investigated the roles of lower- and higher-level processing on restorative effects evoked by nature and urban-related stimuli. In addition to nature and urban photographs, we used 1) versions that lack spatial information but retain certain image properties including those on regularity (i.e., phase-scrambled images), 2) line drawings that contain spatial information and thus allow for higher-level processing while lacking many diagnostic lower-level processed properties, and 3) words that lack any diagnostic image properties but allow higher cognitive processing and provide a mental image of the environment. We examined restoration after participants viewed either original, phase-scrambled, or line drawing versions of nature and urban images (Study 1), or nature- and urban-related words (Study 2). Although nature and urban scenes differed in several image properties, these did not evoke differences in perceived restoration when presented with phase-scrambled images. However, higher-level processing (i.e., recognizing the environment) led to stronger perceived restoration effects for nature compared to urban stimuli (original images, line drawings, and words). These findings contradict assumptions of nature-specific image properties explaining restorative effects and, therefore, have implications for current theories in the field.» weiterlesen» einklappen

Autoren

Klassifikation

DDC Sachgruppe:
Psychologie