Lecture 6: Environmental Perception and Restorative Environment Flashcards
What is environmental perception?
The awareness of, or feelings about, the environment, and as the act of apprehending the environment by the senses
What is the ‘probabilistic’ lens model (Brunsiwck et al., 1903-1955)
A statistical approach that uses the effect of random occurrences or actions to forecast the possibility of future results - theory of probabilistic function
Functionalist: We need to understand the environment in order to function effectively
Probabilistic: Cues from the environment only ‘imperfectly’ useful
The model is way of thinking about describing the relations between the environment and the behavior of organisms in the environment
Critical eval for the lens model?
It’s difficult to use in environmental psychology as it’s difficult to know the true state of the environment
Useful for decision making and diagnosis studies
What is Gibson’s (1904-1979) view of environmental perception?
Gibson is critical of snapshot theories of environmental perception
According to Gibson, perception is direct & less interpretive
Learn what different environments do and what you can do with them
The environment serves functions - becomes transactional
What is affordance theory (1977)?
Affordances are how we perceive environments as ways to afford us our needs
There are things in the environment which allow us to meet our needs - they are very influential in design
Affordance is a characteristic of the object in this case the environment that allows you to do something with it, e.g., shade, food, parking, safe, walking, sitting, activities
What is perceptual dimension?
A feature or a group of features arising from a common quality or theme that represents aspects of the image (shallow dimensions) or physical scene that generated the image (deep dimensions).
What is the relationship between perceptual information and affordances?
When affordances are
perceptible, they offer a direct link between perception
and action; hidden and false affordances lead to mistakes
For example: A door with a handle or a push door communicates different ways a door is opened
What’s the example of a perceived affordance?
Reshaping the holes on bins to match the form of different types of waste
This has been shown to increase recycling levels significantly
By designing where you should recycle different recyclables it improves recycling and correct recycling
What did Duffy et al., (2009) find about perceptual affordances of lids vs no lids
With lids present which match different recycling items, recycling increases
This communicates to the individual that is where you recycle and increases recycling
How does affordance theory relate to architecture?
Anti-homeless architecture - Hostile architecture that prevents homeless people from rough sleeping there
Seating arrangements are very different in different places such as restaurants
Affordance theory: How things are designed show how places want people to use the space
E.g., In McDonalds - fast food, in and out the restaurant where as Starbucks - is a more relaxing environment
How does affordance theory apply to the real world?
It’s not a testable theory but it’s a useful way of looking at human- environment interactions
All about what the environment affords for you
Affordance theory is popular in urban planning
What do different places mean to adolescents in terms of action possibilities?
Lieberg (1995) - Two developmental needs
1. For social interaction
2. To retreat
Adolescents use the environment transitionally
What did Clark et al., (2022) find about adolescents using different spaces?
Location: Guildford
539 participants (11-18yrs)
Ppts are asked how do you use X for X affordance?
E.g., Avoiding people, being yourself, being active etc
Findings: The home environment was for security and ‘friend-retreat’ whereas the neighborhood was for social interaction and retreat
What did Clark & Uzzell (2002) develop?
Developed two scales to enable comparison of two different environments (Neighborhood, School & City)
What is the biophilia hypothesis? (Wilson, 1984)
People have innate affinity with other living things (Biophilia)
Preference for environments that sustain a lot of life
Environments that sustain a lot of ‘survivability’ and evolutionary need
Used as an explanation for why natural environments are preferred over urban ones
Evidence that natural environments have restorative effects/ health benefits
What is the perception of affordance (the design of everyday things) theory? (Norman, 1988)
Norman defines an affordance as something of both actual and perceived properties
The affordance of a ball is both its round shape, physical material, bouncability, etc. (its actual properties) as well as the perceived suggestion as to how the ball should be used (its perceived properties).
