Geostatistical Analysis for the Study of Relationships between the Emotional Responses of Urban Walkers to Urban Spaces

Abstract

The described study aims to find correlations between urban spatial configurations and human emotions. To this end, the authors measured people's emotions while they walk along a path in an urban area using an instrument that measures skin conductance and skin temperature. The corresponding locations of the test persons were measured recorded by using a GPS-tracker (n=13). The results are interpreted and categorized as measures for positive and negative emotional arousal. To evaluate the technical and methodological process. The test results offer initial evidence that certain spaces or spatial sequences do cause positive or negative emotional arousal while others are relatively neutral. To achieve the goal of the study, the outcome was used as a basis for the study of testing correlations between people's emotional responses and urban spatial configurations represented by Isovist properties of the urban form. By using their model the authors can explain negative emotional arousal for certain places, but they couldn't find a model to predict emotional responses for individual spatial configurations.

Examining Trade-Offs between Social, Psychological, and Energy Potential of Urban Form

“…As such, our brain and nervous system responds distinctly to different spatial settings (e.g., urban and greenery [45]). This is similar evident in Hijazi et al (2016) [46], who conducted a small-sample study in which participants wore a skin conductance wristband while roaming freely in an environment. They concluded that participants physiological response was linked to changes of a spatial scene, e.g., street intersections.…”

How environments get to the skin: biosensory ethnography as a method for investigating the relation between psychosis and the city

“…Hence the need for a 'vitalist stance' and the development of experiments in "posthuman health geographies" (Andrews 2018). Fourth, in contrast to studies that infer emotional states from simple physiological data (Bergner et al 2013;Hijazi et al 2016;Zeile et al 2009), we have argued for a contextualization and triangulation of these measurements with environmental and ethnographic data to produce a truly ecological interpretation of urban experience in mental health research.…”

“…To our knowledge, EDA activity has not been put to use in situ in urban environments for the monitoring psychophysiological arousal of people living with a diagnosis of psychosis. However, there is indeed a growing body of work assessing EDA with healthy participants in real world settings within cities (Alajmi et al 2013;Bergner et al 2013;El Mawass and Kanjo 2013;Hijazi et al 2016;Hogertz 2010;Kim and Fesenmaier 2015;Li et al 2016;Zeile et al 2015). Furthermore, EDA has been used in laboratory studies as a psychophysiological indicator of arousal in participants living with a diagnosis of psychosis (Lincoln et al 2015), and it has been used in situ to detect autonomic signature of illness (Cella et al 2018).…”

“…that elicit arousal and/or narratives. Second, GPS positions locate arousal spots and, for example, allow the characterization of participants' relations with the built environment through 'isovists', defined as the portion of space visible from a particular point of view (see Hijazi et al 2016;Li et al 2016). Finally, audiovisual recording combined with video-elicitation interviews constitute an efficient means to observe and discuss inter-sensory phenomena.…”

Sensing and Mining Urban Qualities in Smart Cities

“…This is explored in an earlier study [5], which evaluates the relationships between urban spatial configurations along a select street network and subjective impressions through survey responses. Another study [6] follows a similar methodology but also includes physiological response data from participants using biofeedback wristbands.…”