ABSTRACT
B. L. Driver et al. emphasized the importance of identifying specific behaviors related to visual resources and assessing the psychological benefit of visibility-related behaviors and experience. Two suggestions about assessment of how the public values visual air quality can be made based on a consideration of instructional sets. First, any assessment of sensitivity or quality of visual resources should check for bias being introduced through instructions as an unintentional source of variance. A second assessment strategy would emphasize the intentional use of instructional sets as a means of informing subjects about critical information necessary to make intelligent judgments. Behaviors related to visual resources can be seen as the action or expressive components of expectancies people have about the environment and its features. Visual quality may be valued less if a trail area serves primarily as a passageway to other destinations.
