To this point we have only investigated what happened on the trip and have begun pushing for new methodologies to record these experiences as they unfold. However, a big gap to date has been any emphasis on understanding how the early phases of a trip affect daily or hourly expectations of what will be encountered. Most research has assumed that the visitor arrives at the wilderness portal with an established set of expectations for the managerial, social and physical setting and that they base evaluations of the trip against these expectations. More recent interest is in understanding how personal schema for evaluation are influenced by things that the visitor encounters during the trip. Further research is needed on both the content of educational messages and the media used to communicate with visitors.
Theory needs to be developed, evaluated and applied.
Existing programs need to be evaluated and improved. Experiments need to be designed that isolate factors that influence success. Wilderness visitors' ability to properly perform low-impact practices is dependent on much more than their knowledge. They must identify the need for such practices, requiring a wilderness ethic and a perception that their actions cause impacts. They must know the proper behavior in each situation they find themselves in.