Unit 2

Question 1

Define environmental perception.

Answer 1

It refers to the process by which humans organize and interpret elements of their environment

Question 2

Summarise the difference between Object perception and Environmental Perception.

Answer 2

Object perception relates to simple stimuli in the environment such as light, heat, sound, images.

Comparatively Environmental stimuli embrace complexity within the environment.

Question 3

Is our perception of our memory selective and adaptable ?

Answer 3

Yes - Our memory is adapatable and relates to a number of different areas. Habituation is the relationship that we have the relevance of how to address different areas within the therapeutic dynamic

Question 4

Describe briefly the various forms in which the physical environment is presented to the perceiver in research studies.

Answer 4

Physical , environment in general can be presented in situ to participants. However this is sometimes not always possible. As a consequence, pictures, artifacts aswell as other subject mattes

Question 5

Describe the common methods researchers use to study environmental perception. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of these methods?

Answer 5

Q
Describe the common methods researchers use to study environmental perception. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of these methods?

A
Self-report methods: Includes questionnaires, interviews, checklists, and free descriptions assessing the sensations/perceptions of an environment. - Shortcomings include inaccuracies of self-reports of self-perceptions, incorrectly recall or forget perceptions from the past, or report what they believe the experimenter wishes to hear. Additionally, perception is filtered through language. Nonetheless they are reasonably accurate and economical ways to study environmental perception.

Time-sampling: Participants move through settings and report at certain intervals, exactly what they are looking at, listening to etc. - Has the advantage over self-report in that it does not have to rely on observer memory.

Behavior-inference method: Infers perception by analyzing perceivers behavior such as inferring interest by recording length of time spent looking at art pieces. - May be less economical then other methods.

Psychophysical Method: Psychophysicists know that people can reliably adjust some physical variable (heaviness of weight) in direct proportion to the perception of a psychological construct (seriousness of crime for example). These magnitude estimations allow for calculation of equations called power functions that express a psychological variable in terms of a known physical scale. - May provide a more quantitative estimation of perceptions, but are more narrow in perceptive selection.

Phenomenological Approach: Researcher may also be the perceiver. Rather then employ many subjects, the goal is to use a single very carefully trained observer whose goal is to perceive the essence of a setting in a qualitative way. - Allows detailed gathering of qualitative data, however may face problems of restricted sample size.

Question 6

Summarise Personal factors that influence the environment

Question 7

Think of your own example to illustrate Brunswik’s theory. Use the concepts of ecological validity, cue utilization, and achievement in your answer.

Question 8

What did James Gibson mean by affordances in his ecological theory of environmental perception?

Question 9

Outline Daniel Berlyne’s ideas about environmental aesthetics. How well has Berlyne’s view been supported by research findings?