Few studies have investigated the impact of landscapes on humans’ mental status while they are moving at high speeds, such as driving on the freeway. This study used a simulation system to measure drivers’ mental responses to six different freeway landscapes. Each of the 33 participants completed six different 90-minute simulated driving tasks in a randomly assigned sequence. The six landscape conditions consisted of an identical freeway infrastructure, with different roadside landscapes. Results show significant differences between landscape conditions and drivers’ mental responses. Landscape conditions with greater greenness, in general, had a greater positive impact on drivers’ mental status. The barren and tree regular landscapes yielded the worst and best results, respectively. Further, higher complexity was associated with a higher level of negative mental status. We argue that the speed of human’s active movement should be considered as an essential factor in the Attention Restoration Theory and Stress Reduction Theory.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.