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Theoretical and empirical studies on wisdom continue to interest researchers in various fields. Studies have long pointed out the empirical operationalization of the construct, which has been speculated on since ancient Greece. In addition to numerous theoretical conceptualizations and operational measures, investigations between wisdom and other variables such as positive human traits, dispositional, situational, and environmental variables have helped us understand the concept better. The wisdom development model (Brown 2004 (See CR15)) and empirical research in later years provide adequate evidence about the concept. Current descriptive findings support the theoretical assertions that wisdom and environmental sensitivity are associated. We also found statistically significant correlations between the ecopsychological self and wisdom. Based on the findings, we suggest that wiser people have more holistic and richer viewpoint of life with a commitment to the common good for all, including the environment., Author(s): Rukiye Sahin [sup.1] , Mustafa Baloglu [sup.2] , Ahmet Erdem [sup.1] , Sefika Erdem [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.411550.4, 0000 0001 0689 906X, Faculty of Education, Department of Counseling, [...]

Environmental discounting is a potentially important research area for climate change mitigation. We aimed to replicate and extend earlier work on the discounting of a negative environmental outcome. We measured ratings of concern, and willingness to act to mitigate, an outcome involving air pollution that would hypothetically affect the garden and drinking water of the participants over psychological distance represented by temporal (1 month, 6 months, and 1,3, 5, 10, and 80 years), spatial (5, 20, 50, 100, 1000, and 5000 km), and probabilistic (95%, 90%, 50%, 30%, 10%, and 5% likelihood) dimensions. For our data from 224 first-year psychology students, of four potential models (an exponential, simple hyperbolic, and two hyperboloid functions), the Rachlin hyperboloid was the best-fitting model describing ratings of concern and action across all three dimensions. Willingness to act was discounted more steeply than concern across all dimensions. There was little difference in discounting for outcomes described as human-caused rather than natural, except that willingness to act was discounted more steeply than concern for human-caused environmental outcomes compared to natural outcomes across spatial (and, less conclusively, temporal) distance. Presenting values of the three dimensions in random or progressive order had little effect on the results. Our results reflect the often-reported attitude-behavior gap whereby people maintain concern about a negative event over dimensions of psychological distance, but their willingness to act to mitigate the event is lower and more steeply discounted. Keywords Behavioral economics * Environmental psychology * Temporal discounting * Probability discounting * Spatial discounting, Introduction The world's climate has changed dramatically over the last decades, as human activities drive anthropogenic climate change. Global atmospheric conditions of carbon dioxide (C02), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide [...]

This article analyzes the phenomenon of place attachment to 'home' in two areas of industrial decline: Walker, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), and Highland, Niagara Falls, New York (USA). The research contributes to theoretical and empirical literatures from sociology, anthropology, geography, environmental psychology, and material culture studies on notions of place, community, memory, and home. Despite socioeconomic deprivation and material devastation in areas of industrial decline, houses and neighborhood spaces can become invested with notions of family and community unity, nostalgia for a shared industrial past, and stability amidst socioeconomic change. Place attachment to 'home' is particularly painful during times of post-industrial transition: in the case of Walker, peoples homes are under threat of demolition with imminent City-Council-led regeneration of the community; and in the case of Highland, houses are located on contaminated and economically unviable land. Drawing in both cases on semi-structured interviews with a range of local people between 2005 and 2007, this article argues that narratives of place attachment--of 'devastation but also home--reveal some of the contradictions and uncertainties of living through difficult processes of social and economic change. KEYWORDS: industrial decline, place attachment, regeneration, contamination, industrial ruins, community, home, INTRODUCTION This article examines place attachment to 'home' in the context of disruptive post-industrial change, where homes and communities have come under threat from demolition or toxic contamination. The concepts [...]

The physical environment is often used as a tool to construct, validate, and express identity. This article presents findings from a study that explored the person-place dynamics of a unique landscape: Transy House. Transy house is a trans-dominated communal house for trans women where residents usurped and controlled a defined socio-spatial territory. Tight links were found between individual resident's identity and bedroom decor and between the collective identity of the house and the common areas. Additionally, the concept of a transcape is introduced as a place for people who transgress gender norms to restore and empower their identities through spatial tactics. KEYWORDS: home, gender, transgender, identity, commune, INTRODUCTION While the physical landscape is often used to perpetuate and fortify hierarchal social structures, marginalized communities employ spatial tactics to express, validate, and protect their individual and collective identities. [...]

Recent technological geophysical, and societal forces have fundamentally altered the structure and functioning of human environments. Prominent among these forces are the rise of the Internet; rapid rates of global environmental change; and widening rifts among different socioeconomic, racial religious, and ethnic groups. The present article traces the influence of these conditions on individuals' cognition, behavior, and well-being. New theoretical questions are raised and conceptual frameworks proposed to understand how global conditions are restructuring people's relationships with their everyday environments. New directions for psychological research and practice aimed at reducing global threats to personal and societal well-being are discussed. Keywords: global environmental and social change, virtual and place-based settings, psychological stress, restorative environments

How the memory of adults evolves from the memory abilities of infants is a central problem in cognitive development. The popular solution holds that the multiple memory systems of adults mature at different rates during infancy. The early-maturing system (implicit or nondeclarative memory) functions automatically from birth, whereas the late-maturing system (explicit or declarative memory) functions intentionally, with awareness, from late in the first year. Data are presented from research on deferred imitation, sensory preconditioning, potentiation, and context for which this solution cannot account and present an alternative model that eschews the need for multiple memory systems. The ecological model of infant memory development (N. E. Spear, 1984) holds that members of all species are perfectly adapted to their niche at each point in ontogeny and exhibit effective, evolutionarily selected solutions to whatever challenges each new niche poses. Because adults and infants occupy different niches, what they perceive, learn, and remember about the same event differs, but their raw capacity to learn and remember does not. Keywords: multiple memory systems, infant memory development, potentiation, sensory preconditioning, ecological model of memory development

This special section of Developmental Psychology contains articles on the interplay of biology and the environment, broadly defined, that have the potential to change or challenge how developmental psychologists think. Topics include how experience affects gene expression; how genes affect how the environment is experienced and what effect the environment has; interactions between the environment and the presence or absence of early brain damage; motor neurons and the understanding of others' beliefs and intentions; the effect of physical fitness on cognition and the brain; evidence that our brains work and develop differently from the way traditionally thought; misconceptions that can arise from treating children as if they are simply small adults; and how research with adults can provide insights into developmental processes in children. Each of the 16 articles in the special section forges new territory and crosses disciplinary boundaries. They suggest that investigators look at variables not typically considered, or look at them from perspectives not usually taken, and especially that they pay more attention to interrelations among variables. Keywords: epigenesis, brain development, physical exercise, neuronal synchronous oscillations, Gene x Environment interactions

The existing literature suggests that neighborhood open space (NOS) may play an important role for older people in maintaining and enhancing their quality of life (QoL). However, little is known as to what attributes of such places are relevant to QoL in late life. This study explored what aspects of NOS are associated with health, life satisfaction, and outdoor activity (walking) for older people. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data from 284 people aged 65 years or older, living in Britain. The results indicate that the pleasantness and safety of open spaces were relevant to participants' life satisfaction, whereas the quality of paths to open spaces was associated with walking behavior. The distance to NOS was also correlated with life satisfaction. However, no NOS attributes were associated with participants' health status. These results are further discussed in the context of designing NOS to enhance older people's QoL. Keywords: older adults; outdoor environment: park, health; life satisfaction; walking

Environmental conditions can dramatically influence the behavioral and neurochemical effects of drugs of abuse. For example, stress increases the reinforcing effects of drugs and plays an important role in determining the vulnerability to develop drug addiction. On the other hand, positive conditions, such as environmental enrichment, can reduce the reinforcing effects of psychostimulants and may provide protection against the development of drug addiction. However, whether environmental enrichment can be used to 'treat' drug addiction has not been investigated. In this study, we first exposed mice to drugs and induced addiction-related behaviors and only afterward exposed them to enriched environments. We found that 30 days of environmental enrichment completely eliminates behavioral sensitization and conditioned place preference to cocaine. In addition, housing mice in enriched environments after the development of conditioned place preference prevents cocaine-induced reinstatement of conditioned place preference and reduces activation of the brain circuitry involved in cocaine-induced reinstatement. Altogether, these results demonstrate that environmental enrichment can eliminate already established addiction-related behaviors in mice and suggest that environmental stimulation may be a fundamental factor in facilitating abstinence and preventing relapse to cocaine addiction. dopamine | drug abuse | environment | stress | treatment

Previous studies have pointed out the importance of empathy in improving attitudes toward stigmatized groups and toward the environment. In the present article, it is argued that environmental behaviors and attitudes can be improved using empathic perspective-taking for inducing empathy. Based on Batson's Model of Altruism, it was predicted that higher levels of empathy would improve environmental attitudes and behaviors. It was also predicted that a causal model could be established between empathy and environmental attitudes and behaviors. A study using a factorial design (2 x 2) is reported on the relationship between empathy level (high or low), natural object viewed (bird or tree), and environmental attitudes and behaviors. The results of this study indicate that participants who showed a high empathy level displayed stronger environmental behaviors and attitudes. Additionally, a path analysis shows the moderating effects of evoking empathy for a natural object (bird or tree) on willingness to act in a way that protects the environment (attitudes and behaviors). Keywords: empathy; perspective-taking; environmental concern; environmental attitudes; environmental behavior

Results from 240 students (120 each from Brazil and Norway) on the 15-item revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) show higher endorsement of the ecological paradigm from the Brazilians; suggestions are that this relates to cultural variables rather than to technological development variables. There is no consistent relationship between scores on the NEP and scores from tests of justice based and care based morality, gender roles, or cultural orientation. Alphas, inter-item correlations, and factor analysis show much variation between the samples, but the relative ranking of items show very high agreement. Keywords: cross-cultural; ecological cognition; environmental concern; New Ecological Paradigm

The various uses of space as well as the environmental preferences of wintering people were investigated during 1 year in a French Antarctic station using daily participant observation (for uses of places) and a repeated measure of the perception and evaluation of the settings. The uses of places varied according to occupational and age subgroups: The young scientists expressed a higher need for privacy and a strong investment in their working areas, whereas the technicians preferred the social leisure area (main hall). These places were used as different behavior settings and thus corresponded to flexible environments. Flexibility was a characteristic of all the preferred places. A change in the preferences among the settings and the uses of places was also observed: After midwinter, the preferences evolved from private places to working areas. At the end of the mission, a behavioral change reflecting a stronger need for privacy was also observed. Keywords: adaptation; isolated and confined environments (ICE); habitability; privacy; behavior settings

The purpose of this article is to estimate the strengths of the relationships between judgments of mystery and amount of light, depth of view, and occlusion, whether visual and locomotive occlusion or just visual occlusion. Three experiments were conducted with totals of 145 respondents and 33 scenes. Light had the largest effect on mystery, followed by occlusion of both vision and locomotion and occlusion only of locomotion. Mystery might be a function of vision, not of locomotion. Overall, depth of view had a very small effect on mystery, but effect of depth on mystery was higher at shorter ranges than at longer ranges, suggesting that distance from observer to occluding boundary might be an influential covariate in environmental mystery. Keywords: occlusion; light; depth of view; visual occlusion; locomotive occlusion

Two interpretive case studies are reported that investigate the intentionality of defensiveness versus open-mindedness in persons who hold flawed ideological beliefs. The 1st analyzes an academic authority's resistance to information that disconfirms a therapeutic intervention that he has been successfully promoting. His dissociation and narcissistic withdrawal contrasts with the 2nd case in which a neo-Nazi accepts shaming information about himself and his political ideology that leads him to forge a more integrated persona. The content and scenes of instruction in both cases are formally similar, but in the 2nd case there is an identification with the teacher and an interpersonal and philosophical vitality to their conversation that is credited as conducive to moral culpability, realism, and experiential enlightenment. Keywords: intersubjectivity, philosophical psychoanalysis, education, ecological perception, pragmatic realism

Findings of 7 studies suggested that decisions about the sex of a face and the emotional expressions of anger or happiness are not independent: Participants were faster and more accurate at detecting angry expressions on male faces and at detecting happy expressions on female faces. These findings were robust across different stimulus sets and judgment tasks and indicated bottom-up perceptual processes rather than just top-down conceptually driven ones. Results from additional studies in which neutrally expressive faces were used suggested that the connections between masculine features and angry expressions and between feminine features and happy expressions might be a property of the sexual dimorphism of the face itself and not merely a result of gender stereotypes biasing the perception. Keywords: face perception, sex differences, anger, emotional expressions, ecological psychology

This article presents a framework for considering the relevance of the physical environment to obesity. The authors adopt the notion that the 'environment' constitutes the space outside the person and therefore broaden the common conceptualization of the 'environment' to encompass a full spectrum from small-scale design elements to large-scale community infrastructure. An energy balance approach is also adopted. The energy balance perspective recognizes the equilibrium of food consumption and energy expenditure, rather than focusing solely on one or the other side of the equation. The authors consider how environmental characteristics present either barriers (that hinder), or supports (that promote) healthy habits. Thus, they describe a range of obesity-related environmental themes that provide opportunities for innovative collaborative research between environmental psychologists and colleagues in fields ranging from apparel design to landscape architecture. Last, conceptual and methodological considerations are briefly presented. Keywords: environment; dietary intake; interdisciplinary; obesity; physical activity

Spatial skills are known to vary widely among normal individuals. This project was designed to address whether these individual differences are differentially related to large-scale environmental learning from route (ground-level) and survey (aerial) perspectives. Participants learned two virtual environments (route and survey) with limited exposure and tested on judgments about relative locations of objects. They also performed a series of spatial and nonspatial component skill tests. With limited learning, performance alter route encoding was worse than performance after survey encoding. Furthermore, performance after route and survey encoding appeared to be preferentially linked to perspective and object-based transformations, respectively. Together, the results provide clues to how different skills might be engaged by different individuals for the same goal of learning a large-scale environment. Keywords: spatial memory, environmental learning, individual differences

The vertebrate endocrine system is well-characterized, with many reports of disruption by environmental chemicals. In contrast, cnidarians are less compartmentalized, physiological regulation is poorly understood, and the potential for disruption is unknown. Endocrine-like activity has not been systematically studied in cnidarians, but several classical vertebrate hormones (e.g., steroids, iodinated organic compounds, neuropeptides, and indoleamines) have been identified in cnidarian tissues. Investigators have made progress in identifying putative bioregulatory molecules in cnidarians, and testing the effects of these individual compounds. Less progress has been made in elucidating signaling pathways. For example, putative gonadotropin-releasing hormone and sex steroids have been identified in cnidarian tissues, but it is unknown whether these compounds are components of a larger signal cascade comparable to the vertebrate hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Further, while sex steroids and iodinated organic compounds may help to regulate cnidarian physiology, the mechanisms of action are unknown. Homologs to the vertebrate steroid and thyroid receptors have not been identified in cnidarians, so more research is needed to understand the mechanisms of endocrine-like signaling in cnidarians. Elucidation of cnidarian regulatory pathways will provide insight into evolution of hormonal signaling. These studies will also improve understanding of how cnidarians respond to environmental cues and will provide a basis to investigate disruption of physiological processes by physical and chemical stressors.

This exploratory study examines how an Internet--assisted design game succeeds in bringing forth children's own visions for the environment where they live and their definitions of a good environment. Two connected concepts in environmental psychology, the theory of person--environment fit and the concept of affordances, are applied in the analysis of the results of the design process. The participants were 168-year-old children living in a suburb of Helsinki, Finland. The results indicate that children's design solutions are sensitive to the geographical context. The children generally enjoyed the Internet--based design game. The girls designed more affordances for simply being in peace, whereas the boys emphasized affordances for playing games. The study indicates that affordances can be applied as icons in design games. They also function as a viable concept in the operationalization of the person--environment fit; however, the theory of environmental fit and its operationalization need further development and empirical testing with larger samples. Keywords: child-friendly environments; participation; Internet game; affordances; person--environment fit

'Sense of place' is a widely discussed concept in fields as diverse as geography, environmental psychology, and art, but it has little traction in the field of public health. The health impact of place includes physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and aesthetic outcomes. In this article, the author introduces sense of place as a public health construct. While many recommendations for 'good places' are available, few are based on empirical evidence, and thus they are incompatible with current public health practice. Evidence-based recommendations for healthy place making could have important public health implications. Four aspects of the built environment, at different spatial scales--nature contact, buildings, public spaces, and urban form--are identified as offering promising opportunities for public health research, and potential research agendas for each are discussed.

Extending existing theory in social and environmental psychology, we develop a model to study important predictors of water consumption behavior. Overall results provide support for the predictive ability of stimuli (e.g., environmental awareness), reasoned processes (e.g., personal involvement), unreasoned processes (e.g., habits), and situational factors (e.g., income) on water consumption behavior. Findings indicate that households with lower water usage display greater awareness of water conservation issues, are more highly involved in the decision to use water, and tend to form habits associated with lower usage levels. Furthermore, the results are consistent with past research that attitudes toward water usage appear to be poor predictors of water consumption behavior. After controlling for situational factors (e.g., household size), the findings substantiate the role of personal involvement and habit formation in explaining water consumption, lending further support to the adaptation and development of repeated behavior models in environmental psychology.

A two-stage model of littering behavior in public places differentiated two types of littering: active and passive. The distinction between active littering (e.g., someone drops litter on the ground and continues walking) and passive littering (e.g., someone drops litter on a bench while seated and fails to remove it when leaving) depends on the latency between (a) when the litter is placed in the environment and (b) failure to remove that litter when vacating the territory. Results suggested passive littering was more resistant to change than active littering. Posted feedback significantly reduced cigarette littering by 17% (20% reduction in active littering, 6% increase in passive littering) and noncigarette littering by 19% (0% change in active littering due to minimal baseline levels, 25% reduction in passive littering). The probability of littering also increased with the latency between when litter was placed in the area and when the individual vacated the area. Keywords: litter; prompts; public places; time; cigarettes

The association between negative mood and place preferences was studied in an adult sample. The respondents described their experiences of favorite and unpleasant places and their mood in a questionnaire mailed to the residents of three housing areas in the metropolitan area. In comparison with low negative mood scorers, high negative mood scorers were significantly more often alone in their favorite places or only with passers-by. Adults with high negative mood were also more likely to choose natural favorite places than other places. No association between the level of negative mood and type of unpleasant place or reasons for disliking that place was found. Speculatively, people with high levels of negative emotion in comparison with other, people may not recognize any different negative environmental features but are more tuned for recognizing the physical environment as an opportunity to improve, mood through occasional retreat to favorite settings. Keywords: negative mood; favorite places; unpleasant places; place preferences; emotion regulation

Identifying mechanisms that buffer children from life's stress and adversity is an important empirical and practical concern. This study focuses on nature as a buffer of life stress among rural children. To examine whether vegetation near the residential environment might buffer or moderate the impact of stressful life events on children's psychological well-being, data were collected from 337 rural children in Grades 3 through 5 (mean age = 9.2 years). Dependent variables include a standard parent-reported measure of children's psychological distress and children's own ratings of global self-worth. In a rural setting, levels of nearby nature moderate the impact of stressful life events on the psychological well-being of children. Specifically, the impact of life stress was lower among children with high levels of nearby nature than among those with little nearby nature. Implications of these finding are discussed with respect to our understanding of resilience and protective mechanisms. Keywords: nature; restoration; children; stress; housing

Human activity takes place in space. To act effectively, people need mental representations of space. People's mental representations of space differ from space as conceived of by physicists, geometers, and cartographers. Mental representations of space are constructions based on elements, the things in space, and the spatial relations among them relative to a reference frame. People act in different spaces depending on the task at hand. The spaces considered here are the space of the body, the space around the body, the space of navigation, and the space of graphics. Different elements and spatial relations are central for functioning in the different spaces, yielding different mental representations.

This article reviews the synergy between a number of differing academic disciplines with reference to the study of spatial cognition. It identifies three potential areas for future collaboration: understanding the relationships between the form of the physical world and mental representations, linking space to action, and creating alternative methods and approaches for studying environmental cognition. After discussing the possibilities for collaboration within each of these areas, the article continues by reviewing in detail the articles contained within this special edition. All attempt is made to identify common ground and links between the different articles, illustrating how they might relate both to each other and to the areas of future research identified earlier.

Social relationships had been important in explanation and prediction of attachment to places. Although some have asserted the importance of physical aspects of the environment in the formation of attachment ties to a place, the social environment is required for the formation of bonds to a place, although strong emphasis on the social aspect has been questioned and the importance of the physical environment noted. The present objective in two studies was to test whether college students (ns = 30 and 27) show a preference for a place they know, independently of the social interactions developed in them. Results confirmed the hypothesis, i.e., after a very brief stay in a certain place with nobody else there, these college students preferred that place to another with which they had not had previous contact.

The authors investigated preference, perceived danger, and fear for a sample of 70 field/forest settings. Predictor variables included perception-based variables (visual access, penetration, movement ease), information-based variables (mystery, concealment, refuge), and variables thought to intervene between concealment and danger (entrapment, rearview concern). All variables were rated by independent groups. Danger and fear were strongly positively correlated for these settings, but preference and danger had a more modest negative correlation. Factor analysis of the strongly intercorrelated predictor variables yielded two factors, interpreted as Visibility and Locomotor Access. Both factors were positive predictors of preference and negative predictors of danger. Further analyses suggested feelings of entrapment could mediate the positive relation between concealment and danger and that after controlling for other indicators of visibility, mystery has a positive relation to preference. In general, the role of visual and locomotor access in accounting for preference or danger reactions is highlighted by these findings.

Two studies with adolescent youth (N = 1,376, N = 450) help clarify the relationship between childhood play experiences in wild environments and later environmental preferences in the life domains of work, leisure, and school. Respondents reporting having played in wild environments had more positive perceptions of natural environments, outdoor recreation activities, and future indoor/outdoor occupational environments. No significant differences were found for preferences for environmental sciences activities conducted in schools. Results suggest that childhood play in wildland environments is related to environmental competencies and preferences but not necessarily an intellectual interest in environmental sciences or environmentalism.

The loss of biological diversity is a major environmental problem occurring on a global scale. Human-environment researchers have an important role in shaping policy and programs at a local, national, and international level. This article explores human preference for landscapes relative to ecological quality and assesses the relationship between these preferences and land management behavior. A survey of more than 1,000 urban and rural residents of southeastern Australia examined preferences for 36 black and white photographs of native vegetation. There was more commonality than difference between urban and rural preference for different arrays of native vegetation. Preference for Eucalyptus species was higher than preference for non-Eucalyptus species. Preference ratings indicate minimal differences across landscapes with distinct variation in ecological quality. The study suggests that preference for landscapes of relatively high ecological quality is associated with behavior that is protective of this resource.

One of the most recent fields of investigation in environmental psychology focuses on the relationship between human behavior and management of environmental resources, aspects related to what is known today as sustainable human development. For the authors, this kind of behavior is linked to the relation that people establish with particular environments, specifically, the processes of socioenvironmental identity that condition the people-environment relationship. The authors present the results of a study conducted in the Olympic Village of Barcelona. The urban social identity of residents was analyzed, focusing on three main factors: identification-satisfaction, image of the neighborhood, and perceived social homogeneity. These three factors were analyzed in relation to a series of items in the initial questionnaire referring to proenvironmental behavior, representation of particular natural resources, and environmental attitudes. The authors expected the answers to these questions would differ significantly according to the degree of identification of residents with their neighborhood.

Herzog and Miller (1998) reported that people judged alleys with sharper curves as less dangerous than straighter alleys. The authors investigated the role of perceived alley length as a possible confounding influence. Raters judged a large sample of urban alleys for two target variables (preference and danger) and six predictor variables (setting care, mystery, shadow, curvature, length, and width). The partial correlation of danger and curvature, with length partialed out, was not significant. However, in regression analyses controlling for the entire set of predictors, curvature had a modest negative partial relation with preference and a tendency toward a modest positive partial relation with danger. Thus, when controlling for all predictors, the counterintuitive relation between danger and curvature disappears. In the regression analyses, the strongest predictors were setting care (positive for preference, negative for danger) and shadow (the opposite pattern). Mystery tended to be positively related to both target variables.

Social and behavioral science has often described place attachment and mobility as opposite and mutually exclusive phenomena, has regarded one as better or more important than the other, or has done both. This article presents findings from a qualitative interview study that suggest that people may regard place attachment and mobility, and the relationship between them, in several different ways. Some regard place attachment and mobility as contradictory and feel they have to choose between them; some regard them as opposites but try to find an equilibrium; some regard them as complementary and enjoy both. This article suggests a 'roots/routes' perspective, investigating the perceived meanings of and relationships between place attachment and mobility, and argues that further research along these lines would contribute to current debates about the roles and meanings of place.

The authors report further evidence bearing on the relations among restorative experiences, self-regulation, and place attachment. University students (n = 101) described their favorite places and experiences in them, and 98 other students described unpleasant places. Natural settings were overrepresented among favorite places and underrepresented among the unpleasant places. In open-ended accounts, frequent mention of being relaxed, being away from everyday life, forgetting worries, and reflecting on personal matters indicated a link between favorite places and restorative experience. Restoration was particularly typical of natural favorite places. Structured evaluations of being away, fascination, coherence, and compatibility indicated they were experienced to a high degree in the favorite places, although fascination to a lesser degree than compatibility. The favorite and unpleasant places differed substantially in all four restorative qualities but especially in being away and compatibility. Self-referencing appears to be more characteristic of favorite place experiences than engaging or interesting environmental properties.

Shifting the focus from fear, guilt, and indignation related to deteriorating environmental quality, the authors hypothesized that people who see greater potential for restorative experiences in natural environments also do more to protect them by behaving ecologically, as with recycling or reduced driving. University students (N = 488) rated a familiar freshwater marsh in terms of being away, fascination, coherence, and compatibility, qualities of restorative person-environment transactions described in attention restoration theory. They also reported on their performance of various ecological behaviors. The authors tested a structural equation model with data from a randomly drawn subset of participants and then confirmed it with the data from a second subset. For the combined subsets, perceptions of the restorative qualities predicted 23% of the variance in general ecological behavior. As the only direct predictor, fascination mediated the influences of coherence, being away, and compatibility.

Extreme environmental and social conditions in polar and circumpolar regions present great challenges to field research personnel. In 1997, a new station was constructed at the summit of Greenland for the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs to carry out research on a year-round basis. A longitudinal survey was conducted with the first winter-over crew from August 1997 through April 1998 to find out how the users evaluated the station and to what extent their evaluation of the station was related to their well-being. Results of the survey indicate that the users maintained a positive evaluation of the built environment throughout the season. However, effects of the spatial confinement of the station on the users were somewhat visible. Furthermore, the survey revealed some tendencies between the self-described well-being and environmental and psychological factors. The article concludes with suggestions for design of similar stations in the future.

The intestinal S-cells show few ultrastructural differences among the five species, whereas the vacuolar volume of the A-cells is higher in the mesoplanktonic species of Sagitta. Data further reveal differences in the degree of intestinal vacuolation among the species, whose ecophysiological implications influence their vertical distribution pattern.

Two space simulation studies for the European Space Agency found that interpersonal tension increased in the beginning, around the middle, and toward the end of the confinement. This article reports data from a third study where this issue was further examined. Three subjects were confined in the MIR space station simulator in Moscow for 135 days. Communication analysis, peer rating, questionnaires, and interviews were used to assess crew tension. The temporal pattern found in this study corresponds to the previous findings. The beginning of the period was characterized by competition over leadership. Decreased crew cohesion and aggression toward the mission control marked the middle of the confinement. In the final weeks, open conflicts emerged, and one member was socially excluded. Joking occurred frequently in the first half of the confinement, whereas negative emotional expressions increased in the second half. These results might assist planners in anticipating behavioral problems during space missions.

It has been suggested that personnel in isolated environments experience a drop in mood shortly after the midpoint of their stay. This drop, dubbed the 'third-quarter phenomenon,' was investigated in two studies at a remote Antarctic base. Subjects in Study 1 completed 12 retrospective mood measures, based on Russell's circumplex model of affect, one for each month of their year-long stay. In Study 2, subjects completed one mood scale for each of their 12 months' deployment. The results of both studies indicate moderate empirical support for the existence of the third-quarter phenomenon, but certain dimensions of mood may be more susceptible to temporal effects. These results are discussed in light of the possible links between arousal and isolation, and implications for Antarctic crews are suggested.

Groups of subjects judged one example of two different types of outdoor scenes on each of the items of the Perceived Restorative Scale, on two preference scales and a familiarity scale. It was argued that the previously demonstrated large variations in preference between different types of scenes were the result of participants using the restorative value of a scene as an implicit frame of reference for the preference judgment. Preference and the Perceived Restorative Scale score correlated .81, whereas familiarity and the Restorative Scale correlated .31, and preference and familiarity correlated .32. This result supports the hypothesis regarding the use of the restorative value of a scene as an implicit frame of reference for preference judgments. It is further argued that variations in the preference and restorative value of scenes may be associated with fractal geometry.

Considerable evidence suggests that exposure to 'green' environments can enhance human effectiveness and make life's demands seem manageable. Does this phenomenon extend to poor inner cities, where green space is minimal and life's demands may be overwhelming? In 145 urban public housing residents randomly assigned to buildings with and without nearby nature, attentional functioning and effectiveness in managing major life issues were compared. Residents living in buildings without nearby trees and grass reported more procrastination in facing their major issues and assessed their issues as more severe, less soluble, and more longstanding than did their counterparts living in greener surroundings. Mediation tests and extensive tests for possible confounds supported the attention restoration hypothesis - that green space enhances residents' effectiveness by reducing mental fatigue. These findings suggest that urban public housing environments could be configured to enhance residents' psychological resources for coping with poverty.

Attention Restoration Theory suggests that contact with nature supports attentional functioning, and a number of studies have found contact with everyday nature to be related to attention in adults. Is contact with everyday nature also related to the attentional functioning of children? This question was addressed through a study focusing on children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). This study examined the relationship between children's nature exposure through leisure activities and their attentional functioning using both within- and between-subjects comparisons. Parents were surveyed regarding their child's attentional functioning after activities in several settings. Results indicate that children function better than usual after activities in green settings and that the 'greener' a child's play area, the less severe his or her attention deficit symptoms. Thus, contact with nature may support attentional functioning in a population of children who desperately need attentional support.