A tablet-based task for assessing environmental preferences in children and adults

Area of Science:

• Environmental psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Human-computer interaction

Background:

• Assessing children's environmental preferences is crucial for understanding their connection to nature.
• Existing methods may be limited by age range or confounding aesthetic factors.
• A need exists for a standardized, adaptable tool for child environmental preference research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a tablet-based application for assessing environmental preferences in children aged 4 and above.
• To ensure the assessment isolates environmental preference by controlling for general aesthetic appeal.
• To create a customizable tool applicable to various image-based preference studies.

Main Methods:

• An Android tablet application was designed for preference assessment.
• The task involves ranking sets of images (up to 10) based on paired comparisons (4 images per trial).
• Images were pre-selected and rated by adults to match aesthetic qualities between nature and urban scenes.

Main Results:

• The application was successfully implemented with children aged 4 to 11 years.
• The methodology allows for controlled evaluation of environmental preferences, minimizing aesthetic confounds.
• The app demonstrated feasibility for use with children and their parents/guardians.

Conclusions:

• A novel, user-friendly tablet application enables reliable assessment of environmental preferences in young children.
• The tool's design controls for aesthetic bias, facilitating accurate preference measurement.
• This customizable application has broad potential for child-centered research on image preferences.