Visual aesthetic fatigue: the impacts of beauty, novelty and type of landscape

Abstract

Visual aesthetic fatigue (VAF) is described as the phenomenon that an individual's aesthetic appreciation for the stimulus gradually decreases with its repeated presentation. Although this phenomenon is very common in our daily life, VAF in landscapes has rarely studied, thus our understanding of it is very poor. The present study used 15 photographs which included three landscape types to explore the VAF, expecting to deepen our understanding of this issue and provide some clues to guide designers and managers to mitigate VAF. The preference ratings of these photographs were scored four times by the same respondents at a constant interval (one week). The results indicated that VAF occurred and closely related to the landscape type, in which urban green space had the highest VAF, followed by urban landscape, and nature had the least VAF. Preference score had a very weak influence on VAF, but its consensus within respondents was positively correlated with VAF, and if a landscape possessed a higher perceived novelty, it usually had less VAF. To the author s knowledge, this is the first study to check the effects of preference score and perceived novelty on VAF, and the findings provide guidance on urban planning and landscape design.