經由視覺與嗅覺雙重感官刺激評估室內植物之紓壓效果

Abstract

在室內營造紓壓環境可幫助人們面對沈重的生活與工作等壓力，而植物在提升室內環境品質、情緒等都有益處。目前研究已證實室內擺放植物具有多種效益，但並未區分植物花色，或經由視覺與嗅覺等感官刺激造成的差異。視覺與嗅覺刺激物應為同一種植物以避免受測者感官接收不同植物而產生混淆，本研究選擇玫瑰為室內植物材料，將三種花色的玫瑰輪流布置於大學學生宿舍房間裡，並製作環場影片以為視覺刺激物，將玫瑰精油加酒精稀釋後，噴灑於問卷上以揮發香氣以為嗅覺刺激物。實驗處理共分成五組，其中三組為雙重感官刺激〔白玫瑰＋香氣(T1)、紅玫瑰＋香氣(T2)、與香檳玫瑰＋香氣(T3)〕，加上單一嗅覺刺激之香氣組(T4)，與視覺刺激之白玫瑰組(T5)，以瞭解應用植物於室內環境時經由視覺與嗅覺感官刺激的紓壓效果。 三次的實驗介入包括宿舍房間環境影片、驚悚片、感官刺激等三個時段，感官刺激即是大學宿舍裡各擺放紅、白、與香檳玫瑰，以及沒有花的環場影像，同時依據測驗組分配釋放玫瑰香氣，探討壓力感受與視覺及嗅覺處理之間的關係，測量工具包括房間環境評估(Room Assessment Survey, RAS)以作為量測環境吸引力之工具，狀態焦慮量表(State Anxiety Inventory, SAI)測量心理感受焦慮程度，以及生理回饋儀器(Biofeedback)測量心跳(Heart Rate, HR)與前額肌肌電值(Electromyogram, EMG)以瞭解緊張與放鬆程度，接著探討心理量表與生理反應的變化與關係。 五組測驗組共蒐集166個樣本，各組樣本介於29至39人之間。採用成對樣本T檢定、獨立樣本T檢定、單因子變異數分析、平均值變化圖等進行數據分析，結果顯示，房間內有花的影片大幅地提高環境吸引力，僅聞到香氣不會提高環境吸引力。不同花色玫瑰並沒有造成環境吸引力或心理壓力感受的狀態焦慮值顯著的差異，而白玫瑰與香檳玫瑰搭配白色牆面房間環境的紓壓效果，顯著地影響了生理反應。在雙重感官刺激之三組之中，房間評估值與狀態焦慮值成顯著的負相關。單一或雙重感官刺激都有達到心理上非常顯著的紓壓效果，但是雙重感官刺激進而影響到生理層面的心跳值或肌電值。 研究結果證實，在室內有植物影像或有植物香氣，都能降低壓力，而視覺刺激不但可降低壓力感受，也能提高環境吸引力。本研究中使用的玫瑰切花花色並沒有顯著影響環境吸引力進而影響紓壓效果，但是白色與香檳色玫瑰搭配實驗中的宿舍環境效果較好。最後則對植物材料選用、嗅覺處理、生理回饋儀器操作與判讀、實驗室環境、與應用植物於雙重刺激之可能性等提出建議。

Creating a relaxing indoor environment is helpful in dealing with stresses from life and work, and plants have been proven to improve indoor environmental quality and physical health. A number of studies have substantiated that flowers and foliage plants in an indoor environment generate psychological benefits, whether stress-relief effects of flower color, or evoked by different sensory stimulations have not been distinguished. This study is proposed to find out how different colors of roses and diluted rose odor influence anxiety perception in a indoor environment. The experiment included three interventions: a video of a unversity dormitory room as baseline (A phase), a French thriller movie clip to stimulate stress (B phase), and sensory stimuli: the same dormitory room decorated either with white roses, red roses, champagne roses, or no plants at all, along with ambient rose odor (C phase). The experiment adopted four measure tools, psychological scales such as Room Assessment Survey (RAS) for environment attractiveness, and a brief 8-items State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) for stress perception, physical responses of heart rate (HR) and forehead electromyogram (EMG) recorded all through the experiment, while only the three intervention periods have been clipped for analysis. A total of 166 unversity students were divided into five test groups, either visual (white roses, T5), olfactory (rose odor, T4) or both stimuli (white roses + odor, T1; red roses + odor, T2; champagne roses + odor, T3), while each group has a sample pool from 29 to 39 Taiwan University graduate or undergraduage students. Graphic and statistical analysis includes paired-samples t-test, independent-samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, regression, and histograms. Findings suggest that both olfactory and visual stimuli decrease stress perception, while the later also increases environmental attractiveness. Different colors of roses against white walls may make impacts: all three colors plus rose odor significantly lower stress perception psychologically, while white roses and champagne roses better influence physical responses of HR or EMG. Environmental attractiveness is proven to significantly negatively correlate to state anxiety. Single or double stimuli have no significant difference on state anxiety, however, the latter may make more impact on physical responses. This study proves that either watching a picture of plants or inhaling plant fragrance in an indoor environment may relieve stress, while visual relaxation becomes effective because environmental attractiveness is increased. Color of rose cutflowers may generate stress-relief effects either by increasing environmental attractiveness, or by color on its own. Discussions and recommentions have been proposed regarding plant material selection, olfactory intervention, operation of biofeedback device, laboratory environment, and double sensory stimulus.