Responses to Different Spatial Configurations

Abstract

The influence of variations in space on affective response has not been widely researched. This study investigated the relationship of variations in height, width/depth, and shape to affective responses. Each of 120 respondents was asked to sort, by preference, models of spaces which represented, at one-twelfth scale, all possible combinations of 2.14-m and 6.10-m heights with 1.52-m, 3.05-m, or 6.05-m widths and depths. The results of the chi-square analyses indicate that respondents felt more secure in response to models 2.44 m high than to models 6.10 m high, more pleased in response to the models of square rather than rectangular spaces, and more secure, pleased, and interested, on the average, in response to models of wide rather than narrow spaces. The need for further investigations for special populations and contexts is described and speculations about the implications of this research for use in designing actual settings are discussed.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berlyne, D. E. The new experimental aesthetics and environmental psychology. In P. Suedfeld , J. Russell , L. M. Ward , and G. Davis (Eds.) The behavioral basis for design book 2: Sessions summaries and papers. Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross, Inc., 1977.

DeLong, A. J. The accuracy of spatial perception by informants in scale-model environments. Man-Environment Systems, 1977, 7, 55–58.

Flynn, J. Lighting design decisions as intervention in human visual space. Paper presented at International Commission on Illumination Symposium, Montreal, Canada, 1974.

Hesselgren, S. Man's perception of man-made environment. Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross, Inc., 1975.

Osgood, C. E. , Suci, G. J. , and Tannenbaum, P. H. The measurement of meaning. Champaign-Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1957, 189–199.

Shafer, E. L. Jr. , and Richards, T. A. A comparison of viewer reactions to outdoor scenes and photographs of those scenes. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Research Papers NE-302, 1974.

Stokols, D. Environmental psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 1978, 29, 253–295.

Sucov, E. W. A review of research on the psychological influence of color on people. Pittsburgh, PA: Westinghouse Research Laboratories, 1973.

Wohlwill, J. F. Environmental aesthetics: The environment as a source of affect. In I. Altman and J. F . Wohlwill (Eds.) Human behavior and environment, Vol. I. New York: Plenum Press, 1976.

10.

Wools, R. M. and Canter, D. The effect of the meaning of buildings on behavior. Applied Ergonomics, 1970, 6, 144–150.