The Effect of Visual and Auditory Perceptions on Stress Reduction in Natural and Urban Landscape

• Main Authors: Ting-Yi Chang, 張天奕
• Other Authors: Hui-Mei Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/awjn9j

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 園藝暨景觀學系 === 107 === Anecdotal evidence demonstrated that experiences in natural scenes could reduce stress. Most literature focuses on the visual experience, with little research on other perceptions. Auditory perception is also an important sensory perception of human beings. The natural sound can provide a restorative experience in that it vividly reveals the natural environment in which we live and be important. Previous studies have found that playing a natural environment film with only images and no sound can make people feel too quiet and uncomfortable. Although a few scholars have paid attention to the experience of auditory perception, these documents are mostly directed at the single perception. However, human perception is a multisensory effect. Auditory and visual perception accounts for up to 94% of the sensory experience. Studies in the field of landscape have confirmed that auditory naturalness has more significant impact on tranquility than visual one. This shows that auditory and visual perceptions have an effect on human acceptance of information. Ulrich (1991) studied comparing the pressure reduction of urban and nature landscapes, using a mixture of audio and video as a stimulating medium, has so far been cited as a classic study of stress reduction in natural landscapes. However, the two perceptions are not measured separately. It is difficult to know exactly whether the effects of stress reduction are from visual or auditory or the mix. Therefore, this study refers to this classic experimental design to explore the impact of auditory and visual perceptions on the environmental (natural and urban) stress reduction. Referring to the scenes commonly used in the prior studies related to the stress reduction and psychophysical responses, natural landscape test media mostly used park, farms, mountains, and oceans. Urban landscapes mostly used transportation facilities, commercial buildings, and street buildings. The test media is a 5-minute landscape film. Video materials come from the website of Videvo, Pexels Videos, and shooting by myself. Sound materials come from the website of Freesound. 180 National Taiwan University student participants (aged 18-30) were divided into six groups based on the type of perception and two environments, including a video group (Nv), an audio group (Na), a group of video and audio (Nva) in natural landscape, and a video group (Uv), an audio group (Ua), a group of video and audio (Uva) in urban landscape. Their physiological responses were measured by α-wave and β-wave (EEG), blood volume pulse (BVP), heart rate variability (HRV), and electromyography (EMG). Psychological responses were measured by means of the ZIPERS/ROS scales. There are three stages for 15 min ( each for 5 min). The first stage is to relax with closing eyes. The second stage is to play a quick answer game. The last stage is to watch the landscape video. At the end of the experiment, subject was made filling in a questionnaire. The result shows that, “β-wave” indicates that auditory perception is less effective than visual or integration of visual and auditory perception on the reduction of stress in natural landscape. “Cognition” indicates that integration of visual and auditory perception is most effective on clarifying thoughts in natural landscape. “Fear/arousal” and “angry/aggressiveness” indicate that auditory perception is most effective on immersing negative emotions. “Perceptions” are effective on α-wave, β-wave, LF%, HF% and angry/aggressiveness indicators of stress reduction. “Environments” are effective on fear/arousal, anger/aggression, positive affect, attentiveness, relaxation, attention restoration, and cognition indicators of stress reduction. There are interactions between “perceptions” and “environments” of TP and angry/aggressiveness.