Is restoration in the ‘eye’ of the beholder? contrast and place preference effects on the perceived restorative potential of natural and urban environments

Well-designed environments are recognised for their potential to restore cognitive resources and reduce stress. Typically, research focuses on bottom-up cognitive influences on perceived restorative potential, with less consideration of low-level visual characteristics of these environments processed by the visual cortex, which may also contribute to perceived restorative potential. Two online studies (N = 218; N = 159) - using different image sets typical of those widely used in restoration research - determined how the contrast (a low-level visual characteristic) of nature and urban scenes affected ratings of perceived restorative potential; and whether place preference (a top-down, person-centred cognitive process representing place identity) interacted with contrast or environment type to affect ratings. High contrast and nature images were rated higher in perceived restorative potential than low contrast or urban images. Individuals rated environments congruent with their place preference (either nature or urban) highest in perceived restorative potential, except in Study 2 where people reporting an urban preference rated incongruent nature images more highly. Contrast affected perceived restoration potential differently depending on environment type. The findings reinforce the need to consider both bottom-up low-level visual mechanisms driving our perception of different settings and top-down individual differences to understand the environment-wellbeing relationship.