Perceptual fluency and eye movements when viewing urban and natural scenes

A number of eye-tracking studies have shown that viewing natural environments is associated with reduced eye movement activity compared with viewing built environments. This has been linked to the cognitive benefits of viewing nature and explained in terms of Kaplan and Kaplan's Attention Restoration Theory. However, the theory has recently been criticized for the lack of empirical evidence supporting its framework. The first aim was to replicate the results of previous eye movement studies using different visual stimuli. In addition, we investigated whether reduced eye movements when viewing natural versus urban images could be explained by greater perceptual fluency and fractal complexity of the images. The participants (N = 66) viewed images of forests with and without foliage and images of urban apartment buildings while their eye movements were recorded. The self-reported perceptual fluency and fractal complexity of the presented images were measured. While eye movement analysis revealed significantly less eye movement activity (longer fixations, shorter fixation durations) when viewing natural images than when viewing urban images, consistent with previous findings, mediation analyses did not reveal significant effects of perceptual fluency or fractal complexity on eye fixation results. There was also no significant difference between natural images with foliage and those without for any of the measured variables. Further research directions are discussed. Research should address the specific spatio-cognitive dimensions of natural images, as well as individual differences that may influence the degree of exploration of specific images.