Effects of Pictures With Waterscapes of Varied Visual Perception of Naturalness on Individual Cognition

Natural environments can provide individual cognitive benefits, and naturalness is often regarded as a valued property of environment. This research focuses on the visual perception of naturalness and investigates the impact of waterscapes of varied naturalness levels on people’s cognition, by proposing and verifying two hypotheses: 1) subjective restoration varies across waterscapes of varied naturalness levels; and 2) waterscapes of varied naturalness levels affect people’s working memory accordingly. Through a between-subjects experiment, participants in this research were randomized into three experiment groups (waterscapes of high, medium, and low naturalness level) and the control group, and the Perceived Restorative Scale and the Restoration Outcome Scale are introduced to measure the subjective restoration of the environment. The running memory accuracy, shifting cost, and Stroop task indicators are used to measure an individual’s working memory. According to the characteristics of waterscapes of varied naturalness levels summarized upon the research and the findings on the corresponding cognitive benefits, suggestions are concluded for optimizing resource allocation and investments in landscape design practice, as well as guiding visitors’ usage of waterscapes: 1) waterscapes are recommended in spatial creation for their productive cognitive benefits, if financial and ecological conditions permit; 2) in terms of cognitive benefits, waterscapes of high naturalness level are conducive to high subjective restoration and enhanced inhibition function of central executive system; 3) waterscapes of medium naturalness level can lead to a relatively high subjective restoration and improved updating function of central executive system; and 4) waterscapes of low naturalness level can bring about a better attention restoration and better performance on shifting function of central executive system.