Effects of Differences in Augmented Reality Rural Landscape Scene Configurations on Perceived Restorativeness

INTRODUCTION: Accelerated urbanization and increasingly fast-paced lifestyles have intensified mental health challenges. Although previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in promoting psychological well-being, most research has primarily focused on isolated, single-scene interventions, leaving the effects of scene organization in AR interaction design largely unexplored. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate whether different Augmented Reality scene organization strategies differentially affect psychological regulation by comparing a static appreciation-based parallel architecture with a dynamic exploration-based vertical architecture. METHODS: Grounded in Attention Restoration Theory and Environment-Behavior and Spatial Design principles, a comparative experiment was conducted under balanced design-content conditions. The designed static appreciative and dynamic exploratory rural healing scenes were imported into a mobile Augmented Reality development environment based on the Kivicube platform. The resulting scenes were exported via QR codes, allowing participants to access the standardized intervention platform using mobile phones or tablets. Participants experienced one of the two Augmented Reality scene organization modes, after which their attention restoration and sense of presence were evaluated. RESULTS: The dynamic exploration-based vertical architecture significantly outperformed the static appreciation-based parallel architecture in terms of attention restoration and sense of presence, indicating that scene organization may play an important role in shaping psychological experiences within Augmented Reality environments. CONCLUSION: These findings are consistent with the directional predictions for the psychological mechanisms proposed by Self-Determination Theory and Flow Theory, while offering practical guidance for the interaction design of Augmented Reality-based restorative environments.