Notes
Making Decisions on the Public Space: When Participants Decisions Do Not Match with Their Performance
Ana Hidalgo (University of Calgary)
A lab experiment and a questionnaire were conducted to determine what are the urban design elements that positively affect mental health by reducing mental fatigue and stress.
63 participants (female n=37) were recruited and randomly assigned to each treatment group: landscapes with vegetation (n=21), brightness (n=21), and control group (n=21) for a total of three groups.
All the participants needed to complete the same attention-demanded exam to increase their levels of mental fatigue and stress. Immediately after, participants watched winter urban landscapes images during five minutes (different slide-show per group).
The experiment consisted of evaluating the performance (speed and accuracy) of participants in a directed attention test after they received the treatment (slide-show). Participants in the vegetation treatment showed a quicker recovery from mental fatigue than those in brightness and control groups. Moreover, participants in brightness made more mistakes than the two other groups.
However, when asked about the type of winter scenarios they prefer, 52% of participants answer scenarios with brightness and 40% with vegetation.
The results of this research suggest that having only people’s opinion of they preferred urban landscape scenario is not enough to make decisions about the use of the public space. Evidence-based theories are needed in the field in order to make informed decisions about the public space. What some desire may not work for the others.