Groups of subjects judged one example of two different types of outdoor scene on each of the items of the Perceived Restorative Scale, on two preference scales and a familiarity scale. It was argued that the previously demonstrated large variations in preference between different types of scenes were the result of participants using the restorative value of a scene as an implicit frame of reference for the preference judgment. Preference and the Perceived Restorative Scale score correlated .81, whereas familiarity and the Restorative Scale correlated .31, and preference and familiarity correlated .32. This result supports the hypothesis regarding the use of the restorative value of a scene as an implicit frame of reference for preference judgments. It is further argued that variations in the preference and restorative value of scenes may be associated with fractal geometry.

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Predictions derived from three models of the relations between cognitive processing of and preference responses to outdoor scenes were examined. Twelve scene types were identified, ranging from the inner city to large-scale natural environments found in the Sydney region of Australia, the Padua region of northern Italy, and the Netherlands. In two experiments, participants from the three locations made preference, familiarity, and typicality judgments of all examples of each scene type, with the participants from Sydney and Padua making judgments of the stimuli from both locations while the Dutch participants judged the stimuli froll all three locations. The results of the experiments were most consistent with a preference-for-differences model, with only limited evidence for a preference-for-prototypes model. The largest effect on preference was related to scene type, an effect that is difficult to explain using either of the models of preference. It is argued that this presents a significant problem if it is accepted that preference is considered an important aspect of environmental experience.

Recall and recognition of various aspects of three places were studied under incidental and intentional conditions. Data showed that subjects passing through a place incidentally remembered structural features such as walls better than variable features such as furniture. On the other hand, subjects passing through a place knowing they will be tested for memory of its remembered the variable elements better than the structural elements. The results are interpreted in terms of intentionally governed coding.

Recall and recognition of various aspects of a real scene, a university corridor, were studied under three conditions. In the “low-attention” condition the subjects had to traverse the place in order to carry out aims attainable somewhere else; in the “medium-attention” condition instructions directed their attention to the place in a rather vague and unfocused manner; in the “high-attention” condition their attention was explicitly focused on all aspects of the corridor. An interaction of attention level with memory was investigated considering, according to schema theories, the distinction between expected, stable elements and unexpected, variable ones. It was predicted that memory of objects of furniture (variable elements) should be higher with medium than low, while memory of structural elements (stable elements) should be higher with medium than high attention. The results confirmed this hypothesis, suggesting that medium attention is well suited for investigating memory when the experimenter's aim is to induce attention to all aspects of the environment.