Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy D. Keane / Naturalistic landscapes have increased in popularity, especially in the landscape architecture profession, due to the push for greener and more sustainable landscape designs in civic spaces. The increase in popularity and resulting use of naturalistic landscapes by landscape architects creates a need to understand users’ preferences for naturalistic landscapes. Users need to have moderate to high preference levels for the naturalistic landscape spaces in order for such spaces to be successful. This work identifies and explains civic spaces, characteristics of traditional landscape designs, characteristics and history of naturalistic landscapes, and characteristics and details of previous preference studies that focused on people’s preferences for natural areas. This study also identifies current preference levels and background characteristics of respondents, which are used to determine who does and does not prefer naturalistic landscapes in civic spaces and why. A survey questionnaire targeted toward users of naturalistic landscapes identified opinions, preferences, and statistical data relevant to this study. A total of sixty-one surveys were completed and collected from two separate survey sites. Survey results were used to determine: 1. Preference levels of the respondents. 2. Background characteristics and values of the respondents. 3. Correlations and patterns between respondents’ preference levels and their background characteristics. 4. Correlations and patterns between respondents’ preference levels and their values and opinions. 5. Differences between the results from the two survey sites. Survey results and analyses indicate that perceived safety is a major factor that influences preference levels. Background characteristics such as the level of formal education and the participation in classes and seminars that focus on topics relevant to naturalistic landscapes are also significant indicators of preference levels. Another of the indicators is the participation in outdoor activities of all sorts. Along with determining the indicators of preference levels, the survey results were used in the comparison of the results from the two survey locations.

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Social hållbarhet är ett ämne som är mer aktuellt nu än någonsin, även om det sällan diskuteras i samband med estetik i den bebyggda miljön. De miljöer vi bygger är också de platser där vi tillbringar majoriteten av vår tid, och de påverkar hur vi mår. I takt med att städer växer och blir tätare så blir gestaltningen av dessa platser allt viktigare. Estetiken utgör en stor del av den bebyggda miljön och vår upplevelse när vi rör oss i städerna. Studier visar på att människor föredrar vissa estetiska element framför andra, och att både kropp och hjärna reagerar på estetiska stimuli. I den här uppsatsen utforskas sambandet mellan vad den forskning som finns kring exteriör byggnadsestetik säger, och hur estetiska preferenser inkluderas och diskuteras i stadsbyggnadsprojektet Rosendal i Uppsala i Sverige. / Social sustainability is discussed more today than ever before, but seldom in the context of aesthetics in the built environment. The environments we build are where we spend most of our time, and they affect our wellbeing. With cities growing faster and becoming denser, how we design our home becomes more and more important. Aesthetic variables are a large part of what the built environment is, and constitute much of what we experience on a daily basis when moving around our city. Studies suggest that some aesthetic elements are preferred over others, and that both body and brain respond to aesthetic stimuli. This thesis explores the relationship between what has been found on the subject of building exterior aesthetics so far, and how evidence on aesthetic preferences is addressed in the development project of Rosendal in Uppsala, Sweden

平衡是視覺藝術中一項重要的構圖原則，因為它能將畫面中分散的元素統整起來，使得各個元素所造成的知覺強度或張力（tensions）能在平衡中心相互制衡，進而成為一個有秩序的整體，因此以往文獻對於平衡與美感偏好的關係有諸多論述。本研究目的在於以幾何圖像探討平衡性與美感偏好的知覺歷程。參考Wilson與Chatterjee（2005）的研究成果，本研究以幾何圖像為對象，除了對其實驗加以重複驗證，以及進行更深入的分析，並進一步將畫面元素的明暗納進來一併探討。本研究包括四項實驗，實驗一和實驗二皆採用二值化圖像探討平衡度及美感偏好度，實驗三和實驗四則是採用灰階圖像探討平衡度。實驗一探討圖像中元素位置的分布如何影響個體知覺到的整體平衡度，並根據分析結果以改進Wilson與Chatterjee的算則。實驗二探討圖像中元素分布位置之不同如何影響個體的美感偏好度，並探討偏好度與各項平衡指標的關係。實驗三探討圖像中元素的不同灰階是否影響個體知覺平衡度。實驗四則是以實驗三為基礎，進一步操弄畫面中元素的灰階變化，以觀察元素分布位置與灰階對整體平衡度知覺所造成的影響，並檢視改進後的算則是否更能有效預測主觀平衡度。結果指出，採用二值化圖像探討平衡度及美感偏好時，重心偏離度指標和四項軸對稱指標平均對於主觀平衡度均有極佳的預測力。然而，八項對稱指標平均對於主觀美感偏好有較佳的預測力。灰階的主要效果達顯著，支持先前灰階會影響主觀平衡度的想法。最後，將灰階權重納入算則後，大部分客觀平衡性指標對於主觀平衡度的預測力均有增加，然而其差異僅在重心偏離度指標達顯著。基於本研究結果，各分項指標對於主觀平衡度的預測力不盡相同，因此在發展預測主觀平衡度的指標時，應對各分項指標賦予不同的權重。然而，在尚無足以預測美感偏好之最佳指標的情況下，Wilson 與Chatterjee （2005）所發展出的八項對稱指標平均對其的預測力仍是最佳的。最後，研究者建議未來在從事相關研究時，應將影響平衡的因子一併納入考慮。 / Balance is an important compositional principle in visual arts. Balance gives unity to an image with separate elements, allowing them to produce visual forces and tensions that compensate for each other, and then becoming a whole with order. Previous research has provided plenty of discussions on the relationship between balance and aesthetic preference. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptual process of balance and aesthetic preference in geometric images. Based on Wilson and Chatterjee (2005), geometric images were used again to reexamine their proposal more thoroughly and study the balance and aesthetic preference further taking grayscale into consideration. In this study, four experiments were conducted. Binary images were used in Experiments 1 and 2. Experiment 1 was aimed to test the effects of element distribution on perception of balance and further improve the algorithm proposed by Wilson and Chatterjee (2005). Experiment 2 was intended to investigate how element distribution affects aesthetic preferences and how each measure of balance is related to aesthetic preferences. In the Experiments 3 and 4, grayscale images were used instead. The goal of Experiment 3 was to test whether grayscale affects the perception of balance. Experiment 4 manipulated grayscale levels based on the results of Experiment 3. The goal of this experiment was to observe the effects of element distribution and grayscale levels on balance perception and examine whether introducing the grayscale weight into the algorithm could help predict subjective perception of balance. Results showed that for binary images, deviation of center of weight and the average of symmetry measures along four principal axes were good predictors for subjective balance rather than the average of eight symmetry measures. In contrast, aesthetic preferences were better predicted by the average of the eight measures of symmetry. The main effect of grayscale was significant, supporting the hypothesis that grayscale contributes to the subjective perception of balance. Finally, after the grayscale weight was included in the algorithm, most objective measures of balance improved predicting power for subjective perception of balance, but the difference was significant only for deviation of center of balance. According to the findings of this research, it is suggested that the weight of four measures of inner and outer symmetry should be reduced when applying to predict the perceived balance because including them lowered the predicting power. As to aesthetic preferences, the average of the eight measures of symmetry introduced by Wilson and Chatterjee (2005) was still a better index for predicting aesthetic preferences. Finally, this study suggested that future researchers should consider other factors which also affecting balance perception and evaluate their effects respectively.

藝術欣賞二階段模型所發現的第二階段美感提升現象，若根據流暢性理論加以解釋，為單純曝光造成流暢性提升而導致的結果，未涉及認知處理歷程的影響，然而情緒評估理論以及Leder等人（2004）的美感經驗與評價歷程神經模型，都強調美感經驗為認知與情感的交互作用。針對上述兩類不同的理論觀點，本研究的目的在於探討認知涉入在美感歷程中的重要性，同時亦嘗試瞭解美感經驗中認知與情緒的關係。本研究讓參與者欣賞不同時代、流派與國家的具象藝術畫作，共分成三個實驗。實驗一收集美感相關情緒詞彙，發展美感情緒量表；實驗二與實驗三延伸Locher等人（2007）之實驗設計，分別收集美感偏好與美感情緒的資料，包含顯性與隱性指標，欲從美感提升現象中檢驗認知涉入對兩種美感歷程產物的影響力。實驗二關心美感偏好隨時間的變化，結果顯示認知涉入有助於偏好的提升，而隱性偏好亦有相似的趨勢；實驗三則發現美感情緒並沒有隨呈現時間增加而提升，而認知涉入的影響力也較不明顯，臉部EMG測量則未能反映出隱性美感情緒。本研究也發現，國畫較西畫更顯著地出現美感偏好或情緒的提升現象且較受認知涉入影響，此外，主觀偏好與不偏好的西畫在美感偏好與正向情緒類別之結果中，皆有類似適應的效果，其中主觀偏好畫作隨時間增長而正向情緒減少、負向情緒增加。綜合而言，本研究結果支持認知涉入為美感偏好提升之要素，但是無法確認認知與情緒兩者之間的互動關係，此外，藝術欣賞的第二階段不只有美感提升的現象，亦有美感下降的現象。 / The increase of aesthetic preference over viewing time was found in the study of the two-stage model of art appreciation. This phenomenon could be interpreted by mere exposure effect on improvement of fluency, not involving the influence from the cognitive processes. However, some theories (Silvia, 2011; Leder et al., 2004) emphasized the interaction between cognition and emotion in aesthetic experience. Based on these two kinds of theoretical perspective, the purpose of this study is to explore the role of cognitive involvement in aesthetic processes, and to understand the relationship between cognition and emotion in aesthetic experience. There are three experiments in this study, using the figurative art paintings from different era, genre and countries as the material. In Experiment 1, the emotional adjectives were collected to develop the scale of aesthetic emotion. In Experiment 2 and 3, the effects of cognitive involvement on aesthetic preference and emotion were tested, respectively. We extended the experiment design from Locher et al. (2007) to manipulate the degree of cognitive involvement additionally, with both the explicit and implicit indexes measured. Overall, the results showed that cognitive involvement helped the increase of preference, but not of emotion, because there was no increase of emotion founded. In addition, the effect of cognitive involvement in Chinese paintings was more obvious than that in West paintings. We also found that there could be adaptation effect in aesthetic process. In conclusion, the importance of cognitive involvement in preference increase was supported. But we cannot confirm the interaction between cognition and emotion. In addition, not only the increase of aesthetic preference and emotion, but also the decrease of them could be found in the second stage of art appreciation.