IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v21y2024i5p598-d1389257.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Low-Level Visual Features of Window Views Contribute to Perceived Naturalness and Mental Health Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Larissa Samaan

    (Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

  • Leonie Klock

    (Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

  • Sandra Weber

    (Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

  • Mirjam Reidick

    (Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

  • Leonie Ascone

    (Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

  • Simone Kühn

    (Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
    Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that natural window views are beneficial for mental health, but it is still unclear which specific features constitute a ‘natural’ window view. On the other hand, studies on image analysis found that low-level visual features (LLVFs) are associated with perceived naturalness, but mainly conducted experiments with brief stimulus presentations. In this study, research on the effects of window views on mental health was combined with the detailed analysis of LLVFs. Healthy adults rated window views from their home and sent in photographs of those views for analysis. Content validity of the ‘ecological’ view assessment was evaluated by checking correlations of LLVFs with window view ratings. Afterwards, it was explored which of the LLVFs best explained variance in perceived percentage of nature and man-made elements, and in ratings of view quality. Criterion validity was tested by investigating which variables were associated with negative affect and impulsive decision-making. The objective and subjective assessments of nature/sky in the view were aligned but objective brightness was unreliable. The perceived percentage of nature was significantly explained by green pixel ratio, while view quality was associated with fractals, saturation, sky pixel ratio and straight edge density. The higher subjective brightness of rooms was associated with a lower negative affect, whereas results for impulsive decision-making were inconsistent. The research highlights the validity to apply LLVFs analysis to ecological window views. For affect, subjective brightness seemed to be more relevant than LLVFs. For impulsive decision-making, performance context needs to be controlled in future studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Larissa Samaan & Leonie Klock & Sandra Weber & Mirjam Reidick & Leonie Ascone & Simone Kühn, 2024. "Low-Level Visual Features of Window Views Contribute to Perceived Naturalness and Mental Health Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(5), pages 1-35, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:5:p:598-:d:1389257
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/5/598/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/5/598/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Meredith A Repke & Meredith S Berry & Lucian G Conway III & Alexander Metcalf & Reid M Hensen & Conor Phelan, 2018. "How does nature exposure make people healthier?: Evidence for the role of impulsivity and expanded space perception," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Janice Hegewald & Melanie Schubert & Alice Freiberg & Karla Romero Starke & Franziska Augustin & Steffi G. Riedel-Heller & Hajo Zeeb & Andreas Seidler, 2020. "Traffic Noise and Mental Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-26, August.
    3. Florian Lederbogen & Peter Kirsch & Leila Haddad & Fabian Streit & Heike Tost & Philipp Schuch & Stefan Wüst & Jens C. Pruessner & Marcella Rietschel & Michael Deuschle & Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, 2011. "City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress processing in humans," Nature, Nature, vol. 474(7352), pages 498-501, June.
    4. Sushmitha Kasturi & Victor M. Oguoma & Janie Busby Grant & Theo Niyonsenga & Itismita Mohanty, 2023. "Prevalence Rates of Depression and Anxiety among Young Rural and Urban Australians: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-16, January.
    5. Charles R. Harris & K. Jarrod Millman & Stéfan J. Walt & Ralf Gommers & Pauli Virtanen & David Cournapeau & Eric Wieser & Julian Taylor & Sebastian Berg & Nathaniel J. Smith & Robert Kern & Matti Picu, 2020. "Array programming with NumPy," Nature, Nature, vol. 585(7825), pages 357-362, September.
    6. Richard P. Taylor & Adam P. Micolich & David Jonas, 1999. "Fractal analysis of Pollock's drip paintings," Nature, Nature, vol. 399(6735), pages 422-422, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vanessa Natalie Frey & Patrick Benjamin Langthaler & Martin Josef Huf & Günter Gruber & Thomas Prinz & Ludmilla Kedenko & Bernhard Iglseder & Bernhard Paulweber & Eugen Trinka, 2024. "Stress and the City: Mental Health in Urbanized vs. Rural Areas in Salzburg, Austria," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(11), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Migle Baceviciene & Rasa Jankauskiene, 2022. "The Mediating Effect of Nature Restorativeness, Stress Level, and Nature Connectedness in the Association between Nature Exposure and Quality of Life," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-15, February.
    3. Geeraert, Joke & Rocha, Luis E.C. & Vandeviver, Christophe, 2024. "The impact of violent behavior on co-offender selection: Evidence of behavioral homophily," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Furqan Dar & Samuel R. Cohen & Diana M. Mitrea & Aaron H. Phillips & Gergely Nagy & Wellington C. Leite & Christopher B. Stanley & Jeong-Mo Choi & Richard W. Kriwacki & Rohit V. Pappu, 2024. "Biomolecular condensates form spatially inhomogeneous network fluids," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    5. López Pérez, Mario & Mansilla Corona, Ricardo, 2022. "Ordinal synchronization and typical states in high-frequency digital markets," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 598(C).
    6. Jessica M. Vanslambrouck & Sean B. Wilson & Ker Sin Tan & Ella Groenewegen & Rajeev Rudraraju & Jessica Neil & Kynan T. Lawlor & Sophia Mah & Michelle Scurr & Sara E. Howden & Kanta Subbarao & Melissa, 2022. "Enhanced metanephric specification to functional proximal tubule enables toxicity screening and infectious disease modelling in kidney organoids," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Dennis Bontempi & Leonard Nuernberg & Suraj Pai & Deepa Krishnaswamy & Vamsi Thiriveedhi & Ahmed Hosny & Raymond H. Mak & Keyvan Farahani & Ron Kikinis & Andrey Fedorov & Hugo J. W. L. Aerts, 2024. "End-to-end reproducible AI pipelines in radiology using the cloud," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Lauren L. Porter & Allen K. Kim & Swechha Rimal & Loren L. Looger & Ananya Majumdar & Brett D. Mensh & Mary R. Starich & Marie-Paule Strub, 2022. "Many dissimilar NusG protein domains switch between α-helix and β-sheet folds," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    9. Oren Amsalem & Hidehiko Inagaki & Jianing Yu & Karel Svoboda & Ran Darshan, 2024. "Sub-threshold neuronal activity and the dynamical regime of cerebral cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Matthew Rosenblatt & Link Tejavibulya & Rongtao Jiang & Stephanie Noble & Dustin Scheinost, 2024. "Data leakage inflates prediction performance in connectome-based machine learning models," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    11. Sayedali Shetab Boushehri & Katharina Essig & Nikolaos-Kosmas Chlis & Sylvia Herter & Marina Bacac & Fabian J. Theis & Elke Glasmacher & Carsten Marr & Fabian Schmich, 2023. "Explainable machine learning for profiling the immunological synapse and functional characterization of therapeutic antibodies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    12. Lisette Ibanez & Sébastien Roussel, 2022. "The impact of nature video exposure on pro-environmental behavior: An experimental investigation," Post-Print hal-03847453, HAL.
    13. Halkos, George E & Aslanidis, Panagiotis-Stavros & Landis, Conrad & Papadaki, Lydia & Koundouri, Phoebe, 2024. "A review on primary and cascading hazards by exploring individuals’ willingness-to-pay for urban sustainability policies," MPRA Paper 122262, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Khaled Akkad & David He, 2023. "A dynamic mode decomposition based deep learning technique for prognostics," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 34(5), pages 2207-2224, June.
    15. Romain Fournier & Zoi Tsangalidou & David Reich & Pier Francesco Palamara, 2023. "Haplotype-based inference of recent effective population size in modern and ancient DNA samples," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    16. Laura Portell & Sergi Morera & Helena Ramalhinho, 2022. "Door-to-Door Transportation Services for Reduced Mobility Population: A Descriptive Analytics of the City of Barcelona," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-20, April.
    17. Caroline Haimerl & Douglas A. Ruff & Marlene R. Cohen & Cristina Savin & Eero P. Simoncelli, 2023. "Targeted V1 comodulation supports task-adaptive sensory decisions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    18. Pullinger, Martin & Zapata-Webborn, Ellen & Kilgour, Jonathan & Elam, Simon & Few, Jessica & Goddard, Nigel & Hanmer, Clare & McKenna, Eoghan & Oreszczyn, Tadj & Webb, Lynda, 2024. "Capturing variation in daily energy demand profiles over time with cluster analysis in British homes (September 2019 – August 2022)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 360(C).
    19. Brittany E Evans & Anja C Huizink & Kirstin Greaves-Lord & Joke H M Tulen & Karin Roelofs & Jan van der Ende, 2020. "Urbanicity, biological stress system functioning and mental health in adolescents," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-24, March.
    20. Matthias Wagener & Andriette Bekker & Mohammad Arashi, 2021. "Mastering the Body and Tail Shape of a Distribution," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(21), pages 1-22, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:5:p:598-:d:1389257. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.