nd may be due to the environments in question. Perhaps school libraries, with computers and Internet access contain more opportunities for interesting elements to be considered than the different areas and play equipment of the school playground.
When the playground and library factor scores were compared by sex and age group, the overall results were replicated for girls and the older age group; that is, playground scored higher across restorative components excluding Fascination, which scored lower. Unlike girls and the older age group, however, results indicated that boys and the younger age group, reported that both environments contained interesting elements. It would appear girls and older children found the libraries of their school environments more interesting than their playgrounds and that this accounts for the lower playground Fascination score reported with the total sample. Although not highlighted as a potential sex nor age difference, it was proposed that Fascination could comprise physical stimuli or cognitive involvement (Kaplan, 1989). It can be argued the playground perhaps provides more physically focused elements whereas the library provides more cognitively focused elements of interest. While boys and younger children reported equal levels of Fascination, perhaps indicating divided interest in physical and cognitive stimuli, girls and older children may have indicated a preference for cognitive stimuli when they reported a higher Fascination score for the library. Although all children who participated in this study would have reached the concrete operational thought stage (Piaget 1980), perhaps older children have developed a preference or capacity for more cognitive stimuli than the younger children. The results reported here for both the total sample and by sex and age group indicate the PRCS-C is able to distinguish between environments, a key criterion for validity. Results also indicate possible sex and age differences when considering perceived restorative component levels of environments, particularly Fascination.
Examination of a total perceived restorativeness score, by adding scores of the factors together, was conducted. The assumption, however, that each factor contributes equally to a restorative environment and thus to restoration of attentional capacity does remain a theoretical one. The total perceived restorativeness scale (i.e., all items), yielded strong internal consistency and was able to distinguish between the two environments, with the playground scoring higher on restoration potential than the school library, as predicted by ART (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989; Kaplan 1995) and prior research (Hartig et al. 1997a; Hartig et al. 1997b; Hartig et al. 1991; Herzog et al. 2002; Herzog et al. 2003; Korpela et al. 2002; Laumann et al. 2001). This finding was replicated for both boys and girls and both younger and older children.
Group DifferencesAlthough sample size did not allow for factor analysis to be conducted by sex nor age, factor scores by sex were compared as well as by age groups, as a broad indicator whether the PRCS-C could differentiate between groups of people’s reports of perceived restorativeness and to assess any developmental differences. Across the five factors for the two environments (i.e., ten comparisons), two differences were revealed between boys and girls. First, boys reported higher Being Away- Psychological scores for the playground, indicating that boys feel freer and less constrained than girls when on the playground. Girls’ lower scores on this measure may be influenced by the fact that they find the playground less interesting than the boys do, as reflected in the girls’ lower scores for playground Fascination. Second, boys also reported higher Being Away- Physical scores for the library than girls, indicating that boys perceive a greater difference between the library and classroom than girls. Results revealed no differences between the younger and older children on the five factors for the two environments. As the children were from the same development