Abstract
Studies of hospital environments show that appreciating nature and scenery facilitates stress reduction and recovery from mental fatigue of patients and healthcare workers alike. This study uses the Japanese version of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), from the viewpoint of restorative environments based on attention restoration theory (ART), to examine the influence of art (wall displays depicting natural landscapes and animals) in hospitals. Undergraduate students (fine arts and psychology majors) participated in this experiment. Subjects evaluated hospital environments by observing pictures presented on a monitor in three conditions: 1) without art, 2) with art depicting animals as the main character, or 3) depicting landscapes. Results showed that regardless of students’ majors, hospital environments with art were rated higher than those without art; though the degree of ratings differed by major and gender. These results suggest that hospital environments with arts were perceived to be more restorative as compared to those without art.
