Search results

There are many reasons for visiting nearby natural environments, including the opportunity to get away from everyday places and to go away to nearby natural places for moments of privacy in our lives. This study surveyed 422 visitors to four metroparks in Cleveland, Ohio, to investigate the construct of being away and its association with the desire, achievement, and functions of privacy during on-site visits. Results indicated that being away-from and being away-to are distinct concepts in the minds of visitors and that attributes of being away-to are more important than attributes of being away-from. The importance of the being away phenomenon had a significant association with visitors' desire for privacy, the level of privacy achieved, and the functions that privacy served. It was concluded that when researching the privacy benefits (functions) of urban forest visitors, one also should investigate the role of being away on privacy desired and achieved and on functions served.

The capacity of outdoor recreationists to recognize visual scenes they have experienced during an on-site engagement is reported. Visual recognition capacity is considered important since sightseeing is a major aspect of most wildland recreation engagements, and because "recollection" is a major component of the recreation experience. Visual recognition is also an important aspect of environmental perception and cognition; of how humans see an area and learn to know it. Seven hundred and fifty hikers of a National Park Service trail were surveyed, using a photo questionnaire, for their ability to recognize trail scenes after hiking the trail environment. Results indicate (1) human ability to recognize visual material may be as remarkable for natural environments as researchers have shown for built environments; (2) sightseeing is not a passive activity, hikers were able to recognize certain themes in the environment more effectively than others; (3) interpretive signs placed along the trail as an experimental control increased visitor familiarity (recognition) and preference for those scenes; (4) past experience, in the form of prior visits, viewing of photographic materials, and photography, did not influence visitor recognition capacity; and (5) visual familiarity and preference for scenes are not necessarily directly related.

Information-processing theory is offered as a basis for understanding the issue of solitude and the many realms of privacy humans seek during wilderness experiences. It is suggested that wilderness users do not mean complete isolation when they speak of wilderness solitude, but rather, an environmental situation in which they have some control over the information they must process and the attention required of them to process it. An empirical test involving 109 wilderness campers lends support to the theory. Factor analysis of twenty items characterizing various aspects of wilderness solitude resulted in four factors, in which the "natural environment" that provides an element of "cognitive freedom" was found most important.