Here and Gone: The Visual Effects of Seasonal Changes in Plant and Vegetative Characteristics on Landscape Preference Criteria

Over 40 years of visual landscape preference studies have brought about numerous frameworks and informational factors for understanding and predicting human environmental perceptions. Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan (1989) developed one of the most widely cited, which is composed of four criteria—coherence, legibility, complexity, and mystery. Few if any studies have investigated whether these criteria are affected by naturally- and culturally-induced seasonal changes in plant and vegetative characteristics. This research need is addressed herein. At five locations within each of three landscape architecture project sites in Pennsylvania and New York, 27 experts estimated the presence of each criterion in color photographs taken at three different times of the year. Separate repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) examined the effects of seasonal changes depicted in the photographs. Results showed that the seasons depicted had a significant effect on legibility estimates and a non-significant effect on estimates of coherence, complexity, and mystery. Planned contrasts showed that legibility estimates were significantly different between early and late summer, and late summer and fall. Suggestions for future research and practice are provided.