INSTRUMENTS
DJI Phantom 3 Professional 4K & DJI MAVIC PRO
Using drones, we can get high-resolution-images from the aerial view aspect, which helps us analyze the structure of the landscapes further, for example categorizing the land cover type of the environments, or digitalizing the images for software analysis.
On the other hand, these images could be useful in landscape planning and design. When designing a new place without master plan, the aerial images can be the base and trace out the landscape as the plan.
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Sanfu Leisure Farm, Yilan County, Taiwan
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Highland Experimental Farm, National Taiwan University, Nantou County, Taiwan
Kite Aerial Videography
We used kites and helium balloons to get the photographs from higher elevation, it is the predecessor of drones. The GoPro was attached on the kite string, getting higher when the kite got higher.
Thought Technology Ltd. ProComp Infiniti ™
We can investigate the physiological response of the sample during the process of creative thinking, after exercise or viewing different kinds of landscapes. The physiological response includes heart rate, electromyogram (EMG), Electroencephalographic (EEG), and blood volume pressure (BVP).
The biofeedback instrument, ProComp Infiniti ™
Demonstration of where the sensors to wear
We did an experiments on Highland Experimental Farm with biofeedback measurement to examine the benefits of horticultural activities.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imagining (fMRI) Machine
fMRI instrument is a more objective and direct method to explore human’s reaction to environments, it can show the difference of brain activation between two different tasks. With fMRI instrument, we tried to discover the activated brain areas while participants viewing images, doing attention tasks and while doing the landscape design process.
Drawing in the fMRI machine to examine to brain activities during doing landscape design.
SCALES
Perceived Restorativeness Scale
Hartig, Kaiser, & Bowler (1997); 26 items
Berto (2005); 5 items
Hartig, Kaiser, & Bowler (1997) developed the scale based on the “Attention Restoration Theory” (ART; Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989) to examine the restorative ability of environments that participants perceived. ART interprets that when people using their direct attention in a long period of time or excessively, people will get mentally fatigue. The theory emphasizes that when involving in the green environment can help people maintain attention or recover from direct attention fatigue. The scale includes four dimensions of restorative environments, being away, coherence, fascination and compatibility (Kaplan, 1995). Berto (2005) shorten the scale from 26 items to 5 items, the scale remained four dimensions and separate the extent dimension into two factors, coherence and scope.
Hartig, T., Kaiser, F. G., & Bowler, P. A. (1997). Further development of a measure of perceived environmental restorativeness. Institutet för bostads-och urbanforskning.
Berto, R. (2005). Exposure to restorative environments helps restore attentional capacity. Journal of environmental psychology, 25(3), 249-259.
Landscape Preference Scale
Herzog, & Kropscott (2004)
The scale measures the preference and the evaluation of subjects to the specific landscape or object, it’s how much you like the environments and there’s no correct answer about the feelings (Herzog et al., 2003). The scale includes four factors of the Kaplans’ preference matrix (R. Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; S. Kaplan & Kaplan, 1982), which are coherence, complexity, mystery and legibility.
Herzog, T. R., & Kropscott, L. S. (2004). Legibility, mystery, and visual access as predictors of preference and perceived danger in forest settings without pathways. Environment and behavior, 36(5), 659-677.
Zuckerman Inventory of Personal Reactions (ZIPERS)
Zuckerman (1977)
ZIPERS is a comprehensive anxiety scale, which contains thirteen items, assessing five main sense factors, includes fear arousal, positive affect, anger/aggression, attentiveness-coping and sadness.
Zuckerman, M. (1977). Development of a situation-specific trait-state test for the prediction and measurement of affective responses. Journal of Consulting and clinical psychology, 45(4), 513.
Flow State Scale
Jackson & Marsh (1996); 36 items
Rheinberg, Vollmeyer, & Engeser (2003); 13 items
Flow experience explain a status when a person completely immerses oneself in an activity and ignore the existence of the remnants, which can bring joy and make oneself feel moved in the process, furthermore let the person is willing to devote oneself to the activity. The person can not only get joy and happiness, and also the enhancement of life quality during the activity. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) proposed nine characteristics of flow experience, challenge-skill balance, action-awareness merging, clear goals, unambiguous feedback, concentration on the task at hand, sense of potential control, loss of self-consciousness, transformation of time and autotelic experience. Jackson and Marsh based on the concept developed “Flow State Scale” with 36 items in nine dimensions and Rheinberg (2003) shorten the scale into 13 items.
Jackson, S. A., & Marsh, H. W. (1996). Development and validation of a scale to measure optimal experience: The Flow State Scale. Journal of sport and exercise psychology, 18(1), 17-35.
Rheinberg, F., Vollmeyer, R., & Engeser, S. (2003). Die erfassung des flow-erlebens. na.
Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults, ATTA
陳長益（2006）
Goff, & Torrance (2006)
Creativity is defined as the new, original and useful behavior or products, and the ability to make products. Creativity can be divided into divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Convergent thinking has one correct answer of the problem, on the contrary divergent thinking is the process of problem solving, and there’s no correct answers, which can be assessed by four components, fluency, originality, elaboration and flexibility (Torrance, 1968). The test can assess the reaction to the stimulus of both graphic and language. The version we usually use is revised from Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (Goff & Torrance, 2002)edited by Chen (2006).
Goff, K. (2002). Abbreviated torrance test for adults. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service.
SOFTWARE
Fragstats
McGarigal & Marks (1995)
It is a spatial pattern analysis program calculating various landscape metrics. The landscape metrics measure and describe the structure, composition and configuration, of patches, or a certain category of the patch, or the whole landscape, for example, the land cover type, area, portion of the land cover area, shape, distance among patches…etc. The critical value of landscape metrics is to compare the function of different landscapes, to evaluate the changes through time of one landscape, or to evaluate the results of all the alternatives (Leitão, Miller, Ahern, & McGarigal, 2012; Gustafson, 1998). It might needs to combine several metrics to describe a landscape appropriately, and sometimes the functions of the metrics may overlap. As the result, Leitão et al (2012) proposed a set of landscape metrics, ten metrics, to be the core metrics, which can be considered the most used metrics and can meet the typical requirements in the landscape design process.
McGarigal, K., & Marks, B. J. (1995). Spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-351. US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station.
http://www.umass.edu/landeco/research/fragstats/fragstats.html