Does awareness effect the restorative function and perception of street trees?

Ying-Hsuan Lin,Po-Ju Chang,Chih-Chang Tsai,William C Sullivan,Chun-Yen Chang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00906

Abstract

Urban streetscapes are outdoor areas in which the general public can appreciate green landscapes and engage in outdoor activities along the street. This study tested the extent to which the degree of awareness of urban street trees impacts attention restoration and perceived restorativeness. We manipulated the degree of awareness of street trees. Participants were placed into four groups and shown different images: (a) streetscapes with absolutely no trees; (b) streetscapes with flashes of trees in which participants had minimal awareness of the content; (c) streetscapes with trees; and (d) streetscapes with trees to which participants were told to pay attention. We compared the performance of 138 individuals on measures of attention and their evaluations of perceived restorativeness. Two main findings emerged. First, streetscapes with trees improved the performance of participants on attentional tests even without their awareness of the trees. Second, participants who had raised awareness of street trees performed best on the attentional test and rated the streetscapes as being more restorative. These findings enhance our knowledge about the role of an individual's awareness of restorative elements and have implications for designers and individuals who are at risk of attentional fatigue.

Highlights

Elements in the natural environment improve psychological wellbeing by reducing stress, restoring attention, and increasing positive emotions and esthetic values (Ulrich, 1984; Ulrich et al, 1991; Korpela et al, 2002; Groenewegen et al, 2006; Abraham et al, 2010; Bowler et al, 2010; Kaplan and Kaplan, 2011)
Through Scheffe’s posthoc analysis we confirmed that there is no difference between the reported number of plant species between the No Tree group, the group exposed to urban cityscapes with no trees, and the Minimal Awareness group, the group shown brief flashes of trees
The results showed that awareness level does have an effect beyond and above the attention recovery level even after we controlled the participant’s baseline, where pre-test post-test

Summary

Introduction

Elements in the natural environment improve psychological wellbeing by reducing stress, restoring attention, and increasing positive emotions and esthetic values (Ulrich, 1984; Ulrich et al, 1991; Korpela et al, 2002; Groenewegen et al, 2006; Abraham et al, 2010; Bowler et al, 2010; Kaplan and Kaplan, 2011). Studies have demonstrated that increasing natural elements in an urban environment improved individuals’ well-being (Kaplan, 2007; Chang et al, 2008; Korpela et al, 2010; Martens et al, 2011). Natural elements in urban landscapes can help people pay attention or restore their capacity to pay attention. Because directed attention is needed for executive functioning and self-regulation (Korpela et al, 2001; Kaplan and Berman, 2010), directed attention fatigue can lead to a variety of negative consequences such as inability to concentrate, irritability, and even violent behavior (Kuo and Sullivan, 2001; Taylor and Kuo, 2009). Understanding nature’s ability to restore directed attention is useful in preventing the negative consequences of directed attention fatigue

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