The restorative effects of nature: Experimental methodologies from Environmental Psychology and opportunities for Architecture

Abstract

Environmental psychology is a branch that studies the exchanges between humans and their physical environments. Over the past several years, a significant amount of international investigations have
recognized the benefits that natural environments, and their characteristics, produce in human beings. This
paper carries out a bibliographic review about the principal experimental methodologies that have been
used from environmental psychology, which including simulations conducted in laboratory (images, videos
and virtual reality), and field experiments (walking and landscape contemplation). Throughout the review,
the benefits that natural environments, both physical and simulated, cause in human being and the
possibilities it provides for their use are analyzed. Finally, the main generalities in the methodologies, the
benefits of nature within the urban and the need to increase interdisciplinary research are discussed.