Representational validity of landscape visualizations: The effects of graphical realism on perceived scenic beauty of forest vistas

Photographs have long been used to represent environmental conditions in th e context of landscape quality assessments and environmental perception res earch. Representational options have been significantly expanded by applica tions of computer modeling and computer graphic technologies that can provi de precise visualizations based on inventoried or model-projected biophysic al data. Final graphic displays from computer visualization systems can ran ge from very abstract 'wire-frame' models to high resolution, photorealisti c video images. An important assumption underlying the use of both photogra phic and computer rendered visualizations is that human viewers' responses to these representations provide valid indications of perceptions and judgm ents made in response to direct experience with the landscape conditions no minally represented. In this study the same set of forest landscape scenes was represented by visualizations rendered at four different levels of real ism-abstraction. Each representation was shown to separate groups of observ ers who rated the perceived scenic beauty of tile common set of forest land scape scenes. Correlations between the ratings of the same scenes in the di fferent visualization conditions were very low, raising important questions about the representational validity of computer-generated landscape visual izations. (C) 2001 Academic Press.