ENVIRONMENTAL ATTRIBUTES AND THE PREDICTION OF VISUAL PREFERENCES FORAGRARIAN LANDSCAPES IN WESTERN NORWAY

This article reports findings from a study employing a number of envir onmental attributes in order to (a) describe agrarian landscapes in we stern Norway; and (b) predict preferences for the same landscapes. For these purposes three domains of attributes were chosen: informational variables; perception-based variables; and one single variable, perce ived age of landscape. The most prominent characteristics of highly pr eferred human-influenced landscapes were their high degrees of Age and Mystery. On the other hand, highly preferred nature-dominated landsca pes were characterized by high degrees of Coherence, Openness, Smoothn ess and Ease of Locomotion. In multiple regression analyses, informati onal variables were the most effective domain of preference predictors , although, in separate regression analyses, one perception-based vari able, Openness, and Age also yielded significant results. The results suggest that attributes known to enhance preference are present to a m arkedly higher degree in traditional than in modern agrarian settings. However, that these attributes seem to function differently in human- influenced and nature-dominated settings is of theoretical interest.