Designing Perennial Landscapes: Plant Form and Species Richness Influence the Gaze Perception Associated with Aesthetic Preference

Yangyang Shi, Jiao Zhang, Xinyue Shen, Liang Chen, Yunchen Xu, Rui Fu, Yang Su and Yiping Xia ()
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Yangyang Shi: Institute of Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Jiao Zhang: Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba 271-8510, Japan
Xinyue Shen: Institute of Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Liang Chen: Institute of Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Yunchen Xu: Institute of Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Rui Fu: PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited, Hangzhou 311122, China
Yang Su: The Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University Co., Ltd., Hangzhou 310030, China
Yiping Xia: Institute of Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: The up-close experience of perennial landscapes has been shown to enhance residents’ perception of naturalness in the context of increasing small-scale vegetation landscapes. This study explored how formal aesthetic characteristics were related to landscape perception and whether landscape preference correlated with eye movements. We created a series of photomontages showing perennial combinations that contained different plant forms, degrees of species richness, and plant arrangements and recorded 73 participants’ eye movements during 10 s of free viewing in Experiment A and task-oriented viewing in Experiment B and ratings of landscape preference collected through rating scales. We found that the effects of plant form and species richness were significant for gaze behavior, while arrangement showed no significant effect. We also found that landscape preference was positively correlated with fixation count but negatively correlated with mean fixation duration and total fixation duration. Additionally, women had more but shorter fixations than men while viewing these photomontages, and the difference in aesthetic preferences between men and women was not significant. Concerning the different professional background groups, no significant gaze behavior difference between professionals and nonprofessionals was detected, but compared with professionals, nonprofessionals tended to give strongly higher preference ratings. The outcomes shed light on the influence of formal aesthetic characteristics on gaze behavior and advanced the application of eye-tracking technology in perennial landscape studies. Our findings also confirmed the efficiency of vegetation landscapes designed based on public preferences for providing restoration from stress or fatigue.

Keywords: perennial; formal aesthetic; landscape perception; preference; eye-tracking; visual attention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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