No abstract

Many people do not seem to have interesting perceptual experiences while in contact with nature. To identify potential antecedents of positive perceptual experiences in natural settings, we investigated the role of a personal connection to nature on perceptual evaluation of preference-related environmental information in varying natural settings. The participants (N = 77) rated three different types of images of rural forest landscapes in terms of perceived environmental information, including sense of safety, coherence, complexity, legibility, mystery, attentional restorativeness, familiarity, and preference. They also reported their personal connection to nature. The results showed that deeper personal connections to nature are associated with greater perceptual evaluations of sense of safety, legibility, mystery, and attentional restorativeness after accounting for landscape type and familiarity. A personal connection to nature is likely to enhance a person’s perceptual experiences of natural landscapes.

There is a growing body of literature that explores the benefits of school gardening for children, but few studies have been conducted in Taiwan. Even fewer studies have examined which factors influence the benefits that children derive from these activities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the benefits of school gardening for children in Taiwan and also identify the factors influencing these benefits. This study used qualitative research methods, which consisted of interviewing 43 elementary school students who had extensive experience with gardening, and used a general inductive approach to analyze the data. The study also used a quantitative approach to statistically compare gender differences, which found that there were some differences in preference for gardening between boys and girls in Taiwan. The results also identify seven benefits children can derive from school gardening, including increasing life skills, producing pleasant feelings, improving relationships and having plants as companions, acquiring new knowledge, experiencing the aroma and flavor of fruits and vegetables, improving health, and increasing connection to nature. Some of these benefits of school gardening have not been mentioned in previous studies and can be considered to be new, such as having plants as companions. Additionally, this study found 20 factors that influence the benefits of school gardening. Of these, eight were about plants, seven about activities, two about outdoor environments, and three about other participants. Most of the factors provide more than one benefit. The factors with the greatest impact have the most number of benefits that influence children and include “appearance, odor and texture,” “hands-on,” and “outdoor natural elements.” These factors help us to realize the unique characteristics of gardening, highlight the distinctiveness, and increase the indispensability of gardening activities.