Multimodal Quantitative Research on the Emotional Attachment Characteristics between People and the Built Environment Based on the Immersive VR Eye-Tracking Experiment

Abstract

The campus landscape contributes a lot to students’ mental and physical health. Students’ emotional attachment to landscape space is an important scientific basis for landscape design. This study used immersive virtual reality eye tracking supported by HTC Vivo Pro and an emotional attachment scale to investigate the relationship between different landscape elements and students’ visual behavior and emotional attachment. ErgoLab and SPSS were used to analyze the indicators. The results showed that: (1) Artificial elements were more likely to attract students’ visual attention and continuously enhance their interest in the landscape. (2) The waterscape space was more likely to attract students’ visual attention, while the attractiveness of arbors and shrubs was related to their color and spatial location. (3) The characteristics related to nature were generally conducive to the establishment of students’ emotional attachment, including both the natural elements and artificial structures that could reflect the natural texture and time traces. (4) Three-dimensional spatial sequence design of landscape elements significantly affected students’ visual focus and emotional experience. The results further contribute to providing a clearer understanding of how students’ preference for specific landscape elements can be obtained and used in decision making for the planning and management during campus renewal and design.