Abstract
<p>Natural environments are known to produce positive effects on wellbeing, yet explicit mechanistic proposals for the changes underlying such effects are limited. This paper investigates how environments influence perceptual processing and action selection dynamics. Using the active inference framework, I argue that environmental structure can alter hierarchical inference, shaping agentic behaviour toward either side of the explore-exploit trade-off when engaging with the world. Natural environments, compared with urban ones, tend to tilt agents toward more exploration and increased lower-level inference within their hierarchical generative model. This entails beneficial experiential consequences in the shape of less conceptually mediated experience that is more grounded in the present moment. This epistemic tilt and its experiential benefits are ultimately a consequence of an agent's historical niche and generative model.I show that both natural environments and meditative deconstruction drive inference lower in the hierarchy, resulting in perception of events unfolding over shorter timescales, with less conceptual complexity and less reactivity. I explore the similarities in hierarchical processing dynamics that can be induced in each case. This provides a unified account of how exogenous and endogenous influences can produce a similar beneficial alteration in hierarchical processing. The account further suggests that the functioning of the generative model—as our perception-action system—should be considered when constructing niches for humans that foster wellbeing.</p>