The Ecological Approach to Perceiving and the Dynamics of Environmental Esthetics: A Research Agenda

Research attempting to identify the perceptual basis for environmental preference began four decades ago, but advances have been limited in ensuing years as the research focus shifted without critically revisiting its initial assumptions. This paper does that by reconsidering the basis for environmental preference and psychological well-being from the perspective of the ecological approach to perceiving. With its emphasis on perception-action and dynamic events, the ecological approach highlights dynamic perceptual phenomena that were overlooked due to previous theoretical presuppositions. When the ecological approach is applied to the study of environmental preference, it reveals foundational dynamic properties of environmental perception that immediately implicate affective experience. A research agenda based on an ecological perspective is suggested, and also the prevailing essentialist distinction between natural and built environments is challenged.