Jacob Bell

Date of Award

January 2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Pamela Kalbfleisch

Abstract

Recent technological advances provide opportunities for computer users to replace

desktop pictures with dynamic, audio-visual recordings. Such advances provide researchers with opportunities to better understand how specific video content may effect users' sense of restoration and presence. As described within Attention Restoration Theory, those perceiving restorative environments, which are found primarily within nature-based environments, experience a sense of restoration. Yet, prior research has largely focused on singular, and to an extent, non-interactive displays of restorative environments. The current research further investigated the restorative potential of environments having incorporated interactive, computer-based displays, with animated audio-visual environments. Participants were assigned to either restorative or non- restorative conditions and completed a computer-based, interactive, word task for 10 minutes. The centrally-located task was surrounded by video which presented either a restorative video for participants within the restorative condition, or a non-restorative video for those within the non-restorative condition. Participants then completed the perceived restoration scale (PRS) and a modified version of the Temple Presence Inventory (TPI) to measure the resulting sense of restoration and presence respectively. Results suggest that, as predicted, those who had completed a word-based task presented as part of a restorative user interface reported greater levels of both restoration and presence compared to those who had completed the same word task within the non- restorative condition.

Download

Share

COinS