Abstract

To paraphrase Kipling: East is West, and West is East-as far as a recent experiment in landscape preference is concerned. Our study indicated that recreationists in Utah and New York prefer the same kind of forest landscapes -when the landscapes are depicted by 8- by 10-inch black-and white photographs. A landscape-preference model that was developed and tested on recreationists in New York (Shafer and others 1969) predicted the overall landscape preference pattern of outdoor recreationists near Salt Lake City, Utah. Results of our experiment suggest that the model can be used by regional planners throughout the United States to help evaluate and compare quantitatively the aesthetic quality of different landscapes. When it was developed, the model explained 66 percent of the variation in landscape preference scores of 250 Adirondack campers. Also, in independent field tests, the model predicted the overall landscape preferences of 300 other campers throughout New York State (Shafer and others 1969). Thus, we knew the model worked in the Northeast. The next step was to test how well the model predicted preferences of western recreationists; that was the objective of this study. The study was conducted in cooperation with Utah State University.