People's Psychophysiological Responses to Tropical Trees In Urban Landscapes of Hawaii

Previous studies have indicated the affects of plants and natural landscapes have on people’s emotional and physiological states. These studies have shown that interacting or being near plants can reduce people’s stress levels, help increase their reaction time in performing certain tasks, aid in their recovery from hospital stays, and increase their concentration. In addition, other studies have revealed that people have preference for particular tree shapes, tree colors and urban landscapes with trees and shrubs as opposed to those without. For Hawaii, this is extremely relevant since Hawaii is one of the world’s top travel destinations. Specifically, due to the millions of dollars that are spent on trees and tree care for a variety of social, environmental and economic benefits to the State, the need for proper tree care is even more relevant given that tourism is the State’s number one economy and the large amount of trees planted in urban areas.  An alarming aspect of tree care in Hawaii is that people seem to have an almost antagonistic relationship against them instead of embracing trees in the landscape for their aesthetic and environmental qualities.  Examples of this throughout the islands are the way trees are maintained and pruned.  Large heading cuts, those that leave stumps are the norm, and are not only unsightly, but severely shorten the life of a tree exposing it to disease and pest invasion.  This becomes problematic when the tree structure fails such as falling limbs of weakly attached re-growth limbs without warning and becomes a hazard tree jeopardizing property and lives. Improper pruning cuts of this magnitude are not only detrimental to the trees, but it is hypothesized that peoples’ responses to viewing these trees negatively impacts their emotional and physiological states. The main goal of this study is to characterize the differences in peoples’ emotional and physiological responses to proper and improper tree care practices in Hawaii. This has been accomplished through respondents viewing video pictures of proper and improper tree pruning while psychophysiological measures (EEG, EMG, GSR, and HR) were recorded. Respondents also completed a questionnaire relating to the pictures they had just viewed.  The value of this research is that it expands the current body of knowledge of peoples’ psychophysiological responses to environmental stimulus beyond the aesthetics of the built landscape, and also provides new information to encourage proper pruning techniques which can be implemented in urban areas. 

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