Bridging beauty and biodiversity: Coupling diversity and aesthetics through optimized plant communities in urban riverfront landscapes.

Urban waterfront areas are dynamic interfaces where human and natural systems converge, forming complex ecosystems that encompass social, economic, and environmental elements. These areas offer ecological benefits and aesthetic experiences. However, a disparity between social aesthetic preferences and vegetation diversity along riverbanks impedes the integration of ecological and aesthetic values. To address this, a plant community optimization strategy based on a coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) is proposed. Using the Xietang River in Suzhou, China as a case study, surveys were conducted on 33 woody plant plots and 60 herbaceous plant plots, assessing plant diversity with Shannon-Wiener, richness, and Pielou indices. Landscape beauty was evaluated by 87 respondents using the Scenic Beauty Estimation method. Using six representative plant communities as mediators, CCDM was applied to quantitatively analyze the coordination between plant diversity and aesthetics. Based on this analysis and considering factors influencing plant diversity and scenic beauty, plant community optimization strategies were devised to enhance the coordinated development of ecological diversity and aesthetics, fostering a synergistic improvement in ecological and aesthetic quality. Results revealed a range of coupling coordination across plant communities (0.203 to 0.947), encompassing various types. Linear regression analysis demonstrated a non-linear relationship between plant diversity and landscape beauty, influenced by independent yet partially overlapping factors. Hence, both aspects should be simultaneously considered in the planning and enhancement of riverbank areas. The coupling coordination degree offers a comprehensive understanding of harmonizing plant diversity and aesthetic value, providing a quantitative and objective approach to integrated research. This perspective extends beyond urban waterfront landscapes, holding significance for achieving dual goals of ecology and social services in urban design and landscape management.

Awe experiences, the sublime, and spiritual well-being in Arctic wilderness.

Experiences of awe can carry the potential for life-transforming experiences and foster awareness of nature as a lifelong value. How these experiences emerge was investigated empirically in a pristine natural environment and analyzed informed by a bottom-up perspective with an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental aesthetics and positive psychology. A group of Arctic nature guide students (n = 34) was followed on an 8-day advanced glacier course with additional learning topics related to the Arctic landscape and history, wildlife, and how to protect a wilderness camp from polar bear attacks. After this experience, students were invited to participate in the research project and were asked to reflect on their experiences immediately after their return to civilization. Two narratives each from 27 participants were collected, which provided 54 quotations for interpretation. Reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) surfaced three main themes: context, human response to encounters with nature, and transformation. The study of awe brings the tension between spirituality and well-being closer. The findings add empirical knowledge to the understanding of the contexts for these highly affective and complex feelings. The findings also add refined knowledge about the relationship between awe and the sublime. In transformation for human well-being, the role of self-knowledge or self-transcendence surfaced by wilderness experiences should not be underestimated.

Interruption, work rumination, and stress as indicators of reduced working memory resources affect aesthetic experiences.

Do we savour aesthetic experiences less when distracted by interrupted tasks, work rumination, or stress? Evidence suggests that the ability to concentrate on the aesthetic experience is crucial for initiating a processing mode of conscious aesthetic reception that results in more positive emotions. When working memory resources are otherwise occupied, people are less able to concentrate on aesthetic experiences. Aesthetic savouring, in particular-a cognitive form of emotion regulation that is used to maintain and extend aesthetic experiences-is thought to be impaired under those circumstances. We conducted three investigations to examine how conditions that are known to deplete working memory resources affect the savouring of aesthetic experiences. In Study 1, participants rated beauty and savouring felt from encounters with visual stimuli in a controlled laboratory setting after an interruption of a writing task. Aesthetic experience was hampered if participants were interrupted. In two field investigations, we demonstrated that work-related rumination (Study 2, N = 329) and stress (Study 3, N = 368) are inversely related to the savouring felt from opera, theatre, or cabaret pieces. These findings highlight the importance of concentrating on aesthetic experiences so that the perceiver can fully benefit from them. We also discuss implications for cognitive models of working memory and for health and well-being.

The Bayesian-Laplacian brain.

We outline what we believe could be an improvement in future discussions of the brain acting as a Bayesian-Laplacian system. We do so by distinguishing between two broad classes of priors on which the brain's inferential systems operate: in one category are biological priors (ß priors) and in the other artefactual ones (α priors). We argue that ß priors, of which colour categories and faces are good examples, are inherited or acquired very rapidly after birth, are highly or relatively resistant to change through experience, and are common to all humans. The consequence is that the probability of posteriors generated from ß priors having universal assent and agreement is high. By contrast, α priors, of which man-made objects are examples, are acquired post-natally and modified at various stages throughout post-natal life; they are much more accommodating of, and hospitable to, new experiences. Consequently, posteriors generated from them are less likely to find universal assent. Taken together, in addition to the more limited capacity of experiment and experience to alter the ß priors compared with α priors, another cardinal distinction between the two is that the probability of posteriors generated from ß priors having universal agreement is greater than that for α priors. The two categories are distinct at the extremes; there is, however, a middle range where they merge into one another to varying extents, resulting in posteriors that draw upon both categories.

Humans' Relationship to Flowers as an Example of the Multiple Components of Embodied Aesthetics.

This paper phenomenologically and qualitatively explores the relationship between humans and flowers as a relationship that throws light on the synergetic dynamics of embodied aesthetics. Its methods include qualitative description and thematic analyses of preferred flower types, as well as concept maps of the general term 'flower' by 120 students in Israel. The results revealed the interactive perceptual-compositional elements, as well as embodied, relational, and socially embedded elements of the aesthetic pleasure associated with flowers. Implications of this case study are generalized to understand the multiple and interactive components of embodied aesthetic experiences as a deep source of pleasure through interactive stimulation by and connection to the natural world.

Introduction: The transformative powers of aesthetic experiences in psychotherapy.

This issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session contains seven essays that give expression to three basic convictions. The first is that therapists who are consistently able to help their patients make constructive changes in their lives practice psychotherapy creatively, whether or not they conceive of therapy as an applied science or as an art form. The second is that cultivating an aesthetic perspective on the communicative exchanges that take place in therapy can enhance a therapist's capacity to serve creatively as an agent of change. The third is that therapists can make better choices on behalf of their patients if they take inspiration from what artists have to teach us about the aesthetic domain of existence.