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Abstract
Natural environments have been shown to trigger psychological and physiological restoration in humans. A new framework regarding natural environments restorative properties is proposed. Conditioned restoration theory builds on a classical conditioning paradigm, postulating the occurrence of four stages: (i) unconditioned restoration, unconditioned positive affective responses reliably occur in a given environment (such as in a natural setting); (ii) restorative conditioning, the positive affective responses become conditioned to the environment; (iii) conditioned restoration, subsequent exposure to the environment, in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus, retrieves the same positive affective responses; and (iv) stimulus generalization, subsequent exposure to associated environmental cues retrieves the same positive affective responses. The process, hypothetically not unique to natural environments, involve the well-documented phenomenon of conditioning, retrieval, and association and relies on evaluative conditioning, classical conditioning, core affect, and conscious expectancy. Empirical findings showing that restoration can occur in non-natural environments and through various sensory stimuli, as well as findings demonstrating that previous negative experience with nature can subsequently lower restorative effects, are also presented in support of the theory. In integration with other existing theories, the theory should prove to be a valuable framework for future research.
Highlights
The effects of the environment on human perception, cognition, affect, and behavior have been the subject of psychological research for several decades
The reduction of physiological stress observed in nature may not be explained by meditative states triggered by nature exposure, as much as to the lack of stressor. Corroborating this assumption, unlike reviews and meta-analysis that have included comparisons of natural vs. urban environments [26], those that have compared indoor vs. nature environments have failed to show consistent evidence of psychological and physiological benefits of nature exposure [27,28]. This suggests that stress reduction and attention restoration can co-occur and are not mutually exclusive, but rather associated, making the distinction between attentional and stress-related effects of nature exposure postulated by Attention restoration theory (ART) and Stress reduction theory (SRT) somewhat blurred
conditioned restoration theory (CRT) offers a framework based on conditioning research for the restorative effects of nature
Summary
The effects of the environment on human perception, cognition, affect, and behavior have been the subject of psychological research for several decades. Corroborating this assumption, unlike reviews and meta-analysis that have included comparisons of natural vs urban environments [26], those that have compared indoor vs nature environments have failed to show consistent evidence of psychological and physiological benefits of nature exposure [27,28] This suggests that stress reduction and attention restoration can co-occur and are not mutually exclusive, but rather associated, making the distinction between attentional and stress-related effects of nature exposure postulated by ART and SRT somewhat blurred. Originating from a discussion in a lecture on environmental psychology, which later was outlined in a master’s thesis [35], the theory was substantial reworked and developed drawing on the different author’s backgrounds from health and environmental psychology Implementing research from the former to explain phenomena in the latter, while acknowledging that natural environments often are characterized by features that make them advantageous for eliciting psychophysiological restoration, CRT postulates that restoration can occur as a result of a classical conditioning process. The paper describes CRT, discuss its strengths and limitations, reviews research literature that supports it, and proposes how it can be integrated with established theories
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