In the present study the effects of two different types of road environment on subjective appraisal and physiological activity were investigated by means of slides. The slides consisted of pictures of a road in Drente and a road in Flevoland. The slides were presented to twenty-two male subjects. The recording of heart beat and facial muscle activity took place prior to and during the presentation of a slide. Immediately after the slide presentation, the subjects had to fill in a Road Environment Constructs List (RECL), which scores the subjects' appreciation of a road by three criteria: hedonic value, "activational" value, and perceptual variation. As far as the subjective appraisal is concerned, the same three factors, as came forth from another study with the same slides, were extracted from the RECL data (See also IRRD 825762 and 832989). The factor analysis results obtained during the present study were almost identical to those obtained with the previous study. The appraisal of the two road environments also agreed remarkably well. Compared with the road in Flevoland, the road in Drente scored higher on the hedonic value and perceptional variation. The "activational" value, however, did not differ between both roads. The physiological findings show that: (1) the slide presentation produces an increment in mental load; (2) the electromyography (EMG) activity increased more when slides of Flevoland were presented than during the slides of Drente; and (3) the Flevoland road is less appreciated. Finally, it can be concluded that there is no relationship between the three RECL factors and the physiological activity.
Abstract