Exploring the restorative effects of environments through conditioning : the conditioned restoration theory

Psychological and physiological restoration have shown to occur in environments containing nature, such as forests, parks and rooms with a window view to nature. The thesis explores the option of explaining restoration through a twostep conditioning model, named the conditioned restoration theory. Conditioned restoration theory suggests that in a twostep process people firstly learn to associate nature with a relaxing emotion, then later retrieves the same emotion when presented with an associated stimulus. Individual steps of the models integrate theory from evaluative conditioning and placebo research, as well as research results from environmental psychology. A study was conducted to further investigate the proposed conditioned restoration framework, exploring whether restoration is affected by experience with nature. A 2x2 randomly assigned, partially doubleblind, experimental design (N = 31) examined the effect of viewing pictures of nature and urban environments on the Attention Network Task, digit span backwards, mood, and investigate the moderation effect of previous experience with nature. The Experience with Nature in Child and Adulthood inventory was developed to assess earlier and current experience with nature. Results suggest that viewing pictures of nature significantly improves the executive control sub score of attention network task, reduce arousal, and partial signs of an improved digit span backwards scores. Regression analysis suggest that improvement in executive control is negatively related to the Love and Care for Nature scale, arousal in nature as a child, and heart rate variability, as well as positively related to current amount of interaction with nature. Regression analysis should be interpreted as suggestive and need replication to validate results. As predicted by conditioned restoration theory, viewing pictures of nature reduce arousal, and arousal in nature as a child predicts increase restoration. This suggest low arousal has been conditioned to nature in childhood, affecting restoration. Coupled with previous research, the thesis suggests conditioned restoration theory as a valid framework for the restorative effect of environments, which could prove to be a major contribution to environmental psychology

Proposing a Framework for the Restorative Effects of Nature through Conditioning: Conditioned Restoration Theory

Natural environments have been shown to trigger psychological and physiological restoration in humans. A new framework regarding natural environments restorative properties is proposed. Conditioned restoration theory builds on a classical conditioning paradigm, postulating the occurrence of four stages: (i) unconditioned restoration, unconditioned positive affective responses reliably occur in a given environment (such as in a natural setting); (ii) restorative conditioning, the positive affective responses become conditioned to the environment; (iii) conditioned restoration, subsequent exposure to the environment, in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus, retrieves the same positive affective responses; and (iv) stimulus generalization, subsequent exposure to associated environmental cues retrieves the same positive affective responses. The process, hypothetically not unique to natural environments, involve the well-documented phenomenon of conditioning, retrieval, and association and relies on evaluative conditioning, classical conditioning, core affect, and conscious expectancy. Empirical findings showing that restoration can occur in non-natural environments and through various sensory stimuli, as well as findings demonstrating that previous negative experience with nature can subsequently lower restorative effects, are also presented in support of the theory. In integration with other existing theories, the theory should prove to be a valuable framework for future research.publishedVersio

Exploring the restorative effects of environments through conditioning : the conditioned restoration theory

Psychological and physiological restoration have shown to occur in environments containing nature, such as forests, parks and rooms with a window view to nature. The thesis explores the option of explaining restoration through a twostep conditioning model, named the conditioned restoration theory. Conditioned restoration theory suggests that in a twostep process people firstly learn to associate nature with a relaxing emotion, then later retrieves the same emotion when presented with an associated stimulus. Individual steps of the models integrate theory from evaluative conditioning and placebo research, as well as research results from environmental psychology. A study was conducted to further investigate the proposed conditioned restoration framework, exploring whether restoration is affected by experience with nature. A 2x2 randomly assigned, partially doubleblind, experimental design (N = 31) examined the effect of viewing pictures of nature and urban environments on the Attention Network Task, digit span backwards, mood, and investigate the moderation effect of previous experience with nature. The Experience with Nature in Child and Adulthood inventory was developed to assess earlier and current experience with nature. Results suggest that viewing pictures of nature significantly improves the executive control sub score of attention network task, reduce arousal, and partial signs of an improved digit span backwards scores. Regression analysis suggest that improvement in executive control is negatively related to the Love and Care for Nature scale, arousal in nature as a child, and heart rate variability, as well as positively related to current amount of interaction with nature. Regression analysis should be interpreted as suggestive and need replication to validate results. As predicted by conditioned restoration theory, viewing pictures of nature reduce arousal, and arousal in nature as a child predicts increase restoration. This suggest low arousal has been conditioned to nature in childhood, affecting restoration. Coupled with previous research, the thesis suggests conditioned restoration theory as a valid framework for the restorative effect of environments, which could prove to be a major contribution to environmental psychology

Proposing a Framework for the Restorative Effects of Nature through Conditioning: Conditioned Restoration Theory

Natural environments have been shown to trigger psychological and physiological restoration in humans. A new framework regarding natural environments restorative properties is proposed. Conditioned restoration theory builds on a classical conditioning paradigm, postulating the occurrence of four stages: (i) unconditioned restoration, unconditioned positive affective responses reliably occur in a given environment (such as in a natural setting); (ii) restorative conditioning, the positive affective responses become conditioned to the environment; (iii) conditioned restoration, subsequent exposure to the environment, in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus, retrieves the same positive affective responses; and (iv) stimulus generalization, subsequent exposure to associated environmental cues retrieves the same positive affective responses. The process, hypothetically not unique to natural environments, involve the well-documented phenomenon of conditioning, retrieval, and association and relies on evaluative conditioning, classical conditioning, core affect, and conscious expectancy. Empirical findings showing that restoration can occur in non-natural environments and through various sensory stimuli, as well as findings demonstrating that previous negative experience with nature can subsequently lower restorative effects, are also presented in support of the theory. In integration with other existing theories, the theory should prove to be a valuable framework for future research

Low free-riding at the cost of subsidizing the rich. Replicating Swiss energy retrofit subsidy findings in Norway

Understanding free-riding is central to effective household energy retrofit subsidy policymaking. We replicate a Swiss study on free-riding prevalence in household energy retrofitting in Norway Studer and Rieder (2019). Compared to the original studies free-riding prevalence of 50%, we find only 10%, indicating that Norwegian free-riding is low. Similar to the original study, we find that the use of advisory service and having a good perception of the implementer is associated with not free-riding, but argue these findings should not be interpreted entirely causally, as confounding variables can also explain this association. Finally, we find that Norwegian retrofit subsidies are heavily focused on high-income households, which has ethical implications. Comparing the subsidy systems of the two countries, our findings indicate that raising the energy standard threshold for receiving retrofit subsidies leads to less free-riding, but could stimulate less retrofitting as a whole and focuses distribution of the subsidies on to rich households

Sustainable Energy Policies and Equality: Is There a Nexus? Inferences From the Analysis of EU Statistical and Survey Data

Energy Justice (EJ) and particularly Energy equality (EE), arguably a radical conceptualization of energy justice, advocated for distributional justice and policies addressing distributional inequalities. Distributional policies are known to be contentious and often raise debates on the opportunity to interfere with the free-market allocation of goods in capitalistic economies. Whether EE inspired policies might be considered implementable or not depends on their social acceptability. Therefore, holding on to previous research findings pointing to the higher acceptability of equitable climate policies and the relationship between economic inequality and environmental degradation, we analyse EU data regarding income and income and wealth inequality and data from the H2020 ECHOES project, which consists of an extensive European survey of household energy consumption attitudes. We found that economic equality accounts for 41% of the variance explained at the country level of our sustainable energy care index (SECI), accounting for sustainable energy attitudes. We conclude that the interplay between economic equality and sustainable energy attitudes deserves further attention and might warrant a broader discussion about distributive policies within and beyond the energy sector

Evaluering av Enovas satsing på oppgradering av eksisterende boliger

​Mandatet for denne evalueringa er å dokumentere aktuelle markedsendringer som følger av støtteprogrammet for eksis-terende boliger som oppgraderes til høg energiambisjon. Dette har blitt gjennomført ved å undersøke endring i tilbud og etterspørsel knytta til energioppgradering. Både direkte og indirekte virkninger er kartlagt. Vi har også vurdert programmets enkeltelement. Vi gir forslag til justeringer av virkemiddelinnretninga.​Evaluering av Enovas satsing på oppgradering av eksisterende boligerpublishedVersio

Evaluering av Enovas satsing på oppgradering av eksisterende boliger

​Mandatet for denne evalueringa er å dokumentere aktuelle markedsendringer som følger av støtteprogrammet for eksis-terende boliger som oppgraderes til høg energiambisjon. Dette har blitt gjennomført ved å undersøke endring i tilbud og etterspørsel knytta til energioppgradering. Både direkte og indirekte virkninger er kartlagt. Vi har også vurdert programmets enkeltelement. Vi gir forslag til justeringer av virkemiddelinnretninga.