ENST20001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Attention Restoration Theory, Environmental Values, Conceptual Framework
24 May 2018
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LECTURE 4: EXPERIENCING
ENVIRONMENTS
Experience as a Lens for Human-environment Relationships
• Psychological lens on human interaction with landscapes -
Gobster et al (2007)
o Conceptual framework influences by:
• Landscape patterns - geo/bio/chem
• Perceptual processes (human biological) and
affective reactions (socio/cultural processes)
• Actions that affect landscapes
• Aesthetic experiences
o Shapes our experience, which shapes who we are
and our action
• Environmental characteristics and human characteristics
(biological driven and learnt values) interact to shape relationship with the environment
o Experience: aesthetic, restorative and empathy - change us and how they motivate action
Aesthetic Experience
• Sensory and visual experience
• Enjoyment or appreciation, pleasure, pain or other emotions
• Studied often via scenic beauty and landscape preferences
• What shapes this: (interactions between theories shapes human-environment relationships)
o Need for water food and shelter
o Complexity and coherence
o Cultural norms
o Knowledge and familiarity - Leads to management action:
• Cues of care and tidying up
• Providing landmarks
• Greening cities and building
Restorative Experience
• Interactions in environments that provide a sense of wellbeing
• Present in different forms in different cultures
• Often natural environments preferred, but built environments also restorative (worship, museums)
• Major theories of why environments are restorative:
o Stress recovery theory (Ulrich, 1983)
• Natural environments provide a break from stressors of urban environments
o Attention restoration theory (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989) - dominant theory
• Environments that require mental effort to understand are fatiguing
• Restorative environments place low demand on attention - allows restoration of
concentration
• Characteristics of environment: being away from everyday concerns, soft fascination
(effortless attention), extent (scope for exploration) and compatibility (supports persons
goal or purpose)
• Characteristics of people: level of fatigue, state of health, connectedness to nature and
purpose or goals
• Immediate outcomes of restorative experience (Ohly et al 2016, Bowler 2010)
o Improved attention control
o Reduced negative mood
Document Summary
Experience as a lens for human-environment relationships: psychological lens on human interaction with landscapes - Gobster et al (2007: conceptual framework influences by: Sensory and visual experience: enjoyment or appreciation, pleasure, pain or other emotions, what shapes this: (interactions between theories shapes human-environment relationships) Immediate outcomes of restorative experience (ohly et al 2016, bowler 2010) Longer term outcomes associates with restorative experience: more creative play in children, reduced aggressive activity and crime. Selected broader health benefits associated with natural environments: reduced morbidity and mortality, recovery from surgery, reduced heart rate and blood pressure. Empathy: an emotional response consistent with the perceived welfare of another, empathetic feelings: sympathy, compassion. Stimulated by taking perspective of the person in need and imaging how that person is affected by a situation (batson et al, 2002) Induced empathy can influence environmental values and behaviour (berenguer 2007) Test whether empathy for non-human species influences likelihood of protection (environmental attitudes and behaviour)
