Measuring perceived similarity among outdoor recreation activities: A comparison of visual and verbal stimulus presentations

Abstract

The utility of existing empirical classification research for advancing the theoretical understanding of leisure behavior has been limited, in part, by a lack of stability of classification results across studies. The purpose of this paper was to compare the stability of activity classifications produced by two methods of presenting activity stimuli in similarity rating tasks. In Phase I of the study, two methods of presenting recreation activities (photographs and verbal descriptions) were compared in terms of the similarities among 15 outdoor recreation engagements. In Phase 2, the same 15 photographs were rated in terms of activity, setting, and social group content and compared to the results of the first phase. Multidimensional scalings of the similarity data indicated that subjects judge similarity among photographic representations in terms of activity and setting characteristics. Similarity ratings of the verbal descriptions of the photographs were based on activity and social group characteristics. Photographic presentation provided more vivid representation overall, but is less effective in establishing the social context of participation. The present study suggests that methodological and theoretical refinements in classification research may be achieved through a more rigorous analysis of the stimuli used in activity similarity research.

Keywords:

• leisure classification
• similarity
• activity clusters
• multidimensional scaling