Investigating the relation between visitor attention and visual quality of forest landscape : a mobile EEG study

Abstract

Forest-based destinations rely on quality forest landscapes as a critical resource, and recently the use of psychophysiological techniques that monitor the electrophysiological responses of the brain has gained research attention in forest landscape assessment. This study innovatively employed a mobile EEG methodology to investigate 130 participants’ attentional changes as they walked through the tourist tracks of a national park, and adopted a multi-method design triangulating the findings of a psychometric experiment, self-report measures, and expert assessments of forest landscapes. Results demonstrated a strong correlation between visitors’ attentional changes over time and on different tourist tracks, based on test–retest and alternate-form reliability testing. Moreover, the brain attention values showed some correspondence with the perceived visual quality of forest landscapes as rated by experts, and the consistency between the EEG and expert approaches was particularly evident in relation to landscapes of high and low aesthetic quality. Results provided persuasive evidence for the use of mobile EEG devices as a supplementary or alternative measure of visual quality assessment of forest landscape, and to inform landscape planning and experience design in forest-based destinations.