Coherence is an arrangement of landscape elements which create a culturally unified composition. Identifiability is the presence of landscape elements or characteristics which make a landscape more easily read and understood. Ninety-six photographic slides were taken of the prairie region, varying the presence of each dimension in each landscape scene. These slides were rated on each dimension by a panel of experts made up of students in landscape architecture. These slides were then rated for preference by psychology students.
Results indicate that the operational definitions are fairly accurate for each dimension.
Computer analysis reveals several meaningful interactions among the four landscape dimensions and significant correlations of three of them with preference. The time of viewing test indicates outstanding differences with ratings of two of the landscape dimensions. With these data, several conclusions are drawn concerning the issues of preference in the prairie environment and the regionality of such research. It appears that the prairie exhibits a unique set of relationships and interactions of landscape dimensions and preference. The final section is devoted to investigating the utility and application of such research in landscape architecture.