Pacific Southwest

Title: Measuring familiarity for natural environments through visual images

Author: Hammitt, William E.

Date: 1979

Source: In: Elsner, Gary H., and Richard C. Smardon, technical coordinators. 1979. Proceedings of our national landscape: a conference on applied techniques for analysis and management of the visual resource [Incline Village, Nev., April 23-25, 1979]. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-35. Berkeley, CA. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Exp. Stn., Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: p. 217-226

Station ID: GTR-PSW-035

Description: An on-site visual preference methodology involving a pre-and-post rating of bog landscape photographs is discussed. Photographs were rated for familiarity as well as preference. Preference was shown to be closely related to familiarity, assuming visitors had the opportunity to view the scenes during the on-site hiking engagement. Scenes rated high on preference were likely to be scenes that visitors rated most familiar. In addition, familiarity ratings indicated that visitors were quite cognizant of what scenes they had or had not seen during the on-site hike. A single on-site experience was enough for visitors to recall what they had seen, with repeat visitors showing no apparent increased familiarity. Thus, considerable information concerning natural environments appears to be processed and recorded by visitors during on-site experiences.

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Citation

Hammitt, William E.  1979.  Measuring familiarity for natural environments through visual images.   In: Elsner, Gary H., and Richard C. Smardon, technical coordinators. 1979. Proceedings of our national landscape: a conference on applied techniques for analysis and management of the visual resource [Incline Village, Nev., April 23-25, 1979]. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-35. Berkeley, CA. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Exp. Stn., Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: p. 217-226.