Dissecting the Smyser Index in Visual Quality

摘要

For the past fifty years, planners, designers, scientists, citizens and government officials have been interested in predicting respondent's perceptions concerning the environment. One of the breakthroughs in understanding respondent preference was the development of a twenty variable index that included ecological, functional, and cultural requirements. Before that time, investigators primarily examined aesthetic variables. In our study, we examined this index in detail, separating the variables from the index into main effects and squared terms. We discovered that only a portion of the variables actually contribute to respondent preference. A new prediction equation is presented which explains over 80% of North American and European respondent preference for landscapes.