Page - 135 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

135 7.2.1 Aesthetic Model of  Preferences Berlyne’s (1960, 1974) aesthetic model states that aesthetic responses are a function of four properties of a visual stimulus and the behaviour evoked by those stimuli. Importantly for this chapter, one of those properties is complexity, which is the vari- ety of components that make up the environment (Bell et  al. 2001; Ulrich 1983). High complexity in a visual stimulus is characterised by a large number of elements and the dissimilarity among them (Ulrich 1983). According to Berlyne’s aesthetic model, preference is related to complexity in an inverted U-shape (Berlyne 1960, 1974). Environments with moderate levels of complexity are hypothesised to be most preferred, whereas environments with high or low complexity would be less preferred (Bell et  al. 2001; Ulrich 1983). Testing this hypothesis, Wohlwill (1968) found that preference was greatest for environments with intermediate levels of complexity. 7.2.2 Preference Matrix The  Preference Matrix  (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989) is an informational model of environmental preference  which posits that preferences for environments are based on information that the environment provides. According to this framework, the foundation of environmental preferences is the desire to obtain information from the environment. As such, environments that support rapid information processing, understanding and exploration will be preferred (Hartig and Evans 1993). In the Preference Matrix, four informational qualities in a landscape are ordered by the visitor’s need for information and the level of interpretation required to obtain that information (see Table  7.1). The coherence of the various stimuli in the environ- ment, and how they all fit together, will support immediate understanding of an environment. Coherence provides a sense of order, which contributes to one’s abil- ity to quickly understand an environment; it can be enhanced through redundant features, such as repeating patterns or uniformity of texture (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989). Exploration of the immediate environment depends on the complexity of the stimuli: “the number of different visual elements in a scene; how intricate the scene is; its richness” (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989, p.  53). Complexity in this context refers to how much there is to look at and think about; too much complexity and the envi- ronment cannot be understood and is confusing, but too little complexity and the individual is bored and not motivated to explore. Making sense of an inferred or Table 7.1 The preference matrix (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989) Informational needs Level of interpretation Understanding Exploration Immediate Coherence Complexity Inferred, predicted Legibility Mystery 7 Theoretical Foundations of  Biodiversity and  Mental Well-being Relationships