Study on the Relationship between Restoration Benefit and Visual Satisfaction of LONG-PLAN’s Indoor Vertical Greenery
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
Firstly, your theme is very interesting, but have some inputs which should be reviewed.
1.As green- 34 house technology developed, indoor greenery became more and more common in daily 35 scenario. By the second half of the 20th century, it spread more widely among social strata. (provide references)
2.It is not clear time laps of how much time it needs for human being to start to calm down in green environment (lower cortisol, parasimphaticus activity...) and integrate it into your research. Think that only visiting a room with green wall can not affect nervous system calm down (and you are basically writing cross the whole article about restorative effects of green views). Please connect this item theme with your investigation and article.
Kind regards
Author Response
To Reviewer 1:
- As green- 34 house technology developed, indoor greenery became more and more common in daily 35 scenario. By the second half of the 20th century, it spread more widely among social strata. (provide references)
Response: We are very sorry for our negligence of references for these two sentences. We have added the literature on the application history of indoor greenery in the “introduction”. The statements of “As greenhouse technology developed, indoor greenery became more and more common in daily scenario. By the second half of the 20th century, it spread more widely among social strata.” were modified as “In the mid-20th century, greenhouse technology matured and provided favorable physical conditions such as light quality for the healthy growth of indoor plants, which promoted the widespread use of indoor greenery.” (Line 36-39, page 1).
- It is not clear time laps of how much time it needs for human being to start to calm down in green environment (lower cortisol, parasimphaticus activity...) and integrate it into your research. Think that only visiting a room with green wall can not affect nervous system calm down (and you are basically writing cross the whole article about restorative effects of green views). Please connect this item theme with your investigation and article.
Response: Considering the Reviewer’s suggestion, we have supplemented the relevant literature describing the time required to experience the environment in the green space, see “2.1. Experimental Settings” (Line 169-172, page 5). As shown below, the results of this research proved that 20 minutes of natural environment experience can effectively relieve negative emotions. Therefore, it is reasonable to set 20 minutes as the environmental experience time in this experiment.
【Aziz, N., Shian, L. Y., Mokhtar, M.; et al. Effectiveness of urban green space on undergraduates’ stress relief in tropical city: A field experiment in Kuala Lumpur. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2021, 63, 127236.】：
“Each participant visited each study site (urban green park and built-up area) once over four weeks. Each walking session lasted for 20 min, and a researcher guided them.” “Significant mood changes have been reported by participants after they took a 20-minute leisure walk in the Urban Park and all negative emotions were significantly decreased.”
Another experiment proved that 6 minutes of natural exposure can also effectively relieve stress, as shown below.
【 Browning, M. H. E. M. , Mimnaugh, K. J. , Riper, C. J. V., et al. Can Simulated Nature Support Mental Health? Comparing Short, Single-Doses of 360-Degree Nature Videos in Virtual Reality With the Outdoors. Frontiers Research Foundation, 2020.】：
“We conduct an experiment with healthy undergraduate students that tests the effects of 6 min of outdoor nature exposure with 6 min of exposure to a 360-degree VR nature video, which is recorded at the outdoor nature exposure location.” “Both outdoor and VR nature conditions were positively and statistically significantly associated with restorativeness relative to the control.”
The following study compares the effects of different amount of indoor greenery on stress restoration of the elderly.
【Huang, Q. Y., Yao, Y. N., Li, S. H., Effects of Different Amount of Indoor Greenery on Stress Restoration of the Elderly. Community Design, 2020, (06), 128-135.】：
“This study found that among the indoor spaces of 4 levels of green amount (the proportion of the green plants in the indoor space: 0%, 6%, 12%, 18%), the salivary cortisol level of the elderly decreased the greatest degree in indoor spaces with 6% and 18% green amount.”
Therefore, we assume that the green wall, as the most significant natural element of the indoor space, may have the same effect as the outdoor green space in alleviating negative emotions.
Special thanks to you for your good comments.
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper investigated the psychological restorative benefits of indoor vertical greenery and its relationship with visual satisfaction by questionnaire survey. But the experimental design and data analysis are relatively simple and need to be modified. Specific comments are as follows:
1 Figure 1 does not reflect well the advantages and characteristics of this building, please specify in the figure.
2 In your paper, the research samples consisted of 60 participants. Whether a sample size of 60 is sufficient, and please explain how your sample size was calculated.
3 In line 151, please explain the mean of “subsequent staff for the iterative experiment”.
4 The description of. Research Design is too simple. Please describe specifically. Each person into all three rooms or in three groups into different rooms, in each room for 20 minutes or a total of three rooms for 20 minutes are not clear.
5 How to ensure that the effect of the fatigue induction procedure is consistent for all subjects, and if this effect varies from person to person, whether it will have an impact on the questionnaire results.
6 Why not fill out the questionnaire immediately after experiencing the environment, but go up to the second floor to fill out the questionnaire.
7 in line 179, Please specify how questionnaires were set up in previous literature and give your specific questionnaire.
8 Does the participant visit the three rooms one after another and does the environment of the front room affect his evaluation of the back room?
9 The three rooms are different in terms of light, arrangement, size, etc. I don't think your findings can be attributed to the role of indoor vertical greenery.
10 In linear regression analysis, R-square values are about 0.3. Is the conclusion of regression analysis reliable?
Author Response
Please see the attached response file.
Special thanks to you for your good comments.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Study on the relationship between restoration benefit and visual satisfaction of LONG-PLAN’s indoor vertical greenery
The object of this study is to explore whether green plants in the indoor environment can provide storative benefits for human health and their relationship with visual satisfaction based on Attention Recovery Theory (ART).
Comments:
This is a fairly straightforward study.
Authors can comment on their sampling rationale, especially steps taken to ensure bias is kept to a minimum.
Quantitative information should be provided in abstract.
Details on Attention 72 Restoration Theory (ART) should be provided, since it is a main factor in this study.
In the discussion chapter, authors can also talk about how findings can be translated into design guidelines.
Limitations and recommendations for further study should be appended.
Please provide full questionnaire in annex
Scientific studies involving human subjects should go through Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for ethics compliance. Please append IRB number in manuscript
Author Response
To Reviewer 3:
- Quantitative information should be provided in abstract.
Response: We have made correction according to the Reviewer’s comments. Quantitative information has been added to the “Abstract” (Line 18, 20-21, 23, 25, page 1).
- Details on Attention 72 Restoration Theory (ART) should be provided, since it is a main factor in this study.
Response: Considering the Reviewer’s suggestion, we have supplemented the details of ATR, see“1.2 Research progress of restorative environment” (Line 78-83, page 2).
- In the discussion chapter, authors can also talk about how findings can be translated into design guidelines.
Response: As the Reviewer suggested that we have translated the research results into design guidelines, which are also used as suggestions for vertical indoor greening design, see “4. Discussion” (Line 378-400, page 12).
- Limitations and recommendations for further study should be appended.
Response: We have increased our discussion of the limitations of the study, see “4. Discussion” (Line 416-418, page 13).
- Please provide full questionnaire in annex.
Response: We have provided the complete questionnaire for this study and the initial questionnaire referenced for this study in annex.
- Scientific studies involving human subjects should go through Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for ethics compliance. Please append IRB number in manuscript.
Response: This experiment uses a questionnaire to investigate the respondents' feelings after experiencing the environment, and the whole experiment does not cause any harm to people. Due to professional and project conditions, we are unable to apply for IRB service. We are very sorry that we cannot provide IRB number.
Special thanks to you for your good comments.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The previous problem has been well modified and this paper is proposed for publication in the journal.
