Differences in eye movements while viewing images with various levels of restorativeness

Previous studies have suggested that analysis of eye movements can provide new insights into the research of features of restorative environments in terms of the Attention Restoration Theory. Humans prefer images of nature over urban scenes, and eye-movement behavior seems be different across these categories. To enhance these findings, we investigated differences in eye movements while viewing nature scenes versus two categories of urban scenes. Apart from ordinary urban scenes, we also included the category of scenic images of old cities. The analysis of eye movements indicated lower eye movement activity while viewing nature scenes relative to ordinary urban scenes and also minor differences in eye movements between urban scenes and old city scenes. The results are explained in terms of lower cognitive effort while processing nature scenes in contrast to images of built environments.