Insights into Public Visual Behaviors through Eye-Tracking Tests: A Study Based on National Park System Pilot Area Landscapes

Peng Wang,Youjun He,Wenjuan Yang,Dengju Wang

doi:10.3390/land10050497

Peng Wang, Youjun He + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/land10050497

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Abstract

National parks are important natural reserves of high ecological value, and the visual perception of national park landscapes is closely tied to the degree of protection that the natural resources within national parks receive. Visual cognition has a direct impact on public consciousness and plays an increasingly important role in national park management. Most techniques and methods previously used to study visual behaviors are subjective and qualitative; objective and quantitative studies are rare. Here, we used the eye-tracking method to study the visual behaviors of individuals viewing landscapes within the Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area to assess the visual and psychological mechanisms underlying public perception of different landscapes. The effect of landscape type on visual behaviors was greater than that of color diversity and degree of spatial confinement and was mainly related to the characteristics of landscape elements. The public preferred recreational and forest landscapes with high ornamental value, whereas rural and wetland landscapes tended to be neglected given that perception of these landscapes required additional information to facilitate interpretation. When landscape colors were uniform and landscape spaces were more confined, the fixation duration was longer, and instant attractiveness was stronger. The effects of subject background on behavioral preferences were examined. Females were more interested in the whole landscape, whereas males focused more on the parts of the landscapes with prominent humanistic architectural features, complex colors, and open space. Art students generally preferred landscapes with strong humanistic attributes, whereas students majoring in forestry preferred landscapes with strong natural attributes.

Highlights

National parks were born out of a change in the aesthetic appreciation of nature in Europe and the United States in the first half of the 19th century
The results of the variance homogeneity test showed that there was no significant difference in the variances of each group at the level of a = 0.05; that is, the variances were homogeneous, which met the conditions for further multiple comparisons
The results showed that: (1) there were no significant differences in fixation duration average (FDA) and saccade frequency (SF) between genders in the three landscape groups, but there was a significant difference in saccade velocity average (SVA) between genders in the space-confined group

Summary

Introduction

National parks were born out of a change in the aesthetic appreciation of nature in Europe and the United States in the first half of the 19th century. An increasing number of landscape studies are examining human perception, with a focus on natural elements and the study of the physical perception and psychological cognition of the public [6,7,8,9]. This is consistent with contemporary ecological studies emphasizing the need for human and cultural activities to be integrated into ecological studies to ensure compatibility between humans and nature [10,11,12] and reflected by the themes of major conferences, such as the 100th anniversary of the British Ecological Society. With the development of science and technology, there is growing interest in the study of humans and their perception, visual behaviors, and perception of national park landscapes [14]

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