Intuition is an innate ability through which human beings acquire knowledge about the world around them. Throughout history people have speculated about how intuition operates and about the accuracy and usefulness of intuitively derived conclusions, but there have been few attempts at empirical investigation primarily due to the fact that a person using intuition does not appear to be doing anything at all. In fact, clinical lore suggests that that trying too hard may actually impede progress toward achieving an intuitively derived solution. As source of knowledge or understanding, intuition appears to stand somewhere between perception and reason. Phenomenologically, intuitively derived solutions resemble perceptions, in that both are experienced as “given,” however unlike perception intuition involves no discernable physiological pathway leading from sensory stimulation to the conscious awareness of some thing. Functionally, intuition has similarities to the process of reasoning, in that both can provide useful information about the world to consciousness. In use, however, intuition differs from reasoning, which takes place through explicit, observable intermediates between the recognition of a problem in need of a solution and the achievement of a successful solution. Intuition involves no such intermediates. Thus, intuition appears to be a function with neither pathway nor process. The set of studies discussed in Part A of this thesis was designed to examine the notion that, rather than an abrupt and disjunctive “change of state,” intuition is an incremental, accumulative process through which implicit and increasingly complete intermediates, or states of “partial knowledge” are generated prior to the achievement of a solution in consciousness. In Part A, it was demonstrated that unsuccessful attempts to identify objects portrayed in difficult visual gestalts significantly facilitated participants’ performance on a related partial-word solution task. When the unrecognized stimulus items were incoherent, i.e., altered so that the component parts were displaced and rotated relative to each other, the facilitation effect, while still significant, was less than when the unrecognized gestalt was coherent. This finding supports the idea that the amount of solution-relevant implicit knowledge generated in an unsuccessful attempt to solve a problem varies with the quality of information present in the problem situation. The set of studies in Part B examined the effect of inserting “dead air” interval between the visual gestalt and the related partial-word in the partial-word solution phase. Against prediction, coherent partial-word facilitation did not decrease at any interval condition, while incoherent partial-word increased at the longest interval condition. Overall, the findings are best explained by a bi-directional, dual-processing model in which the organization of visual stimuli and the symbolic labeling of sub-components within the visual stimuli are processed independently. Such a model could provide some context for the dispute between proponents of reorganization vs. forgetting in the debate about mechanism underlying incubation effects.

Intuition is an innate ability through which human beings acquire knowledge about the world around them. Throughout history people have speculated about how intuition operates and about the accuracy and usefulness of intuitively derived conclusions, but there have been few attempts at empirical investigation primarily due to the fact that a person using intuition does not appear to be doing anything at all. In fact, clinical lore suggests that that trying too hard may actually impede progress toward achieving an intuitively derived solution. As source of knowledge or understanding, intuition appears to stand somewhere between perception and reason. Phenomenologically, intuitively derived solutions resemble perceptions, in that both are experienced as “given,” however unlike perception intuition involves no discernable physiological pathway leading from sensory stimulation to the conscious awareness of some thing. Functionally, intuition has similarities to the process of reasoning, in that both can provide useful information about the world to consciousness. In use, however, intuition differs from reasoning, which takes place through explicit, observable intermediates between the recognition of a problem in need of a solution and the achievement of a successful solution. Intuition involves no such intermediates. Thus, intuition appears to be a function with neither pathway nor process. The set of studies discussed in Part A of this thesis was designed to examine the notion that, rather than an abrupt and disjunctive “change of state,” intuition is an incremental, accumulative process through which implicit and increasingly complete intermediates, or states of “partial knowledge” are generated prior to the achievement of a solution in consciousness. In Part A, it was demonstrated that unsuccessful attempts to identify objects portrayed in difficult visual gestalts significantly facilitated participants’ performance on a related partial-word solution task. When the unrecognized stimulus items were incoherent, i.e., altered so that the component parts were displaced and rotated relative to each other, the facilitation effect, while still significant, was less than when the unrecognized gestalt was coherent. This finding supports the idea that the amount of solution-relevant implicit knowledge generated in an unsuccessful attempt to solve a problem varies with the quality of information present in the problem situation. The set of studies in Part B examined the effect of inserting “dead air” interval between the visual gestalt and the related partial-word in the partial-word solution phase. Against prediction, coherent partial-word facilitation did not decrease at any interval condition, while incoherent partial-word increased at the longest interval condition. Overall, the findings are best explained by a bi-directional, dual-processing model in which the organization of visual stimuli and the symbolic labeling of sub-components within the visual stimuli are processed independently. Such a model could provide some context for the dispute between proponents of reorganization vs. forgetting in the debate about mechanism underlying incubation effects.

In this thesis, the problem of the principles of new designs in historic built landscapes is discussed. In approaching the problem, a theoretical framework is developed and the general principles regarding new buildings in historic settings are derived from the theoretical context. Subsequently, the proposed principles is tried to be adapted to the case of Odunpazari historic urban fabric. Finally, a Youth Center for a specific Project Area in Odunpazari is proposed, and the integration of the proposal to the context is evaluated. The foremost aim of the thesis is proposing general principles concerning good architecture that continues and contributes to the spirit of place, and adapting them for a specific design problem in a specific place in order to evaluate the efficiency of the principles proposed. In developing the theoretical framework, it was discussed that, in determination of the principles for new designs, the historic built landscape should be handled in a way that resolves the network of relationships and allow the definition of the spirit of place. The methodology of understanding the spirit of place was established with reference to the approaches developed by Christopher Alexander and Christian Norberg-Schulz. According to the studies by these scholars, a triad layer system in resolving the spirit of place is developed. As named by Christian Norberg-Schulz, the layers of Gestalts, typologies and figures constituted the analytical framework leading to the resolution of the network of relationships between the components of a place. This model of analyzing and defining the spirit of place was found valuable, since it does not only focuses on the formal aspects of the historic built landscape, but also questions the main rules forming the unity and coherence of place. Odunpazari traditional urban fabric is selected as a case study, and its physical, historical, social and economical context is evaluated by the help of the literature and site surveys. Finally, a &amp / #8216 / Youth Center&amp / #8217 / in a Project Area in Odunpazari is proposed according to the general principles derived from the theoretical framework, and the results are discussed.

L'école Gestaltiste s'intéresse à la vision, leur point de vue est que<br />nous regroupons des points lumineux et/ou des objets selon certaines<br />règles pour former des objets plus gros, des Gestalts.<br /><br />La première partie de cette thèse est consacrée à la constance de<br />largeur. La Gestalt constance de largeur regroupe des points situés<br />entre deux bords qui restent parallèles. Nous cherchons donc dans les<br />images des courbes ``parallèles.'' Nous voulons faire une détection<br />a contrario, nous proposons donc une quantification du ``non<br />parallélisme'' de deux courbes par trois méthodes. La première méthode<br />utilise un modèle de génération de courbes régulières et nous<br />calculons une probabilité. La deuxième méthode est une méthode de<br />simulation de type Monte-Carlo pour estimer cette probabilité. Enfin<br />la troisième méthode correspond à un développement limité de la<br />première en faisant tendre un paramètre vers 0 sous certaines<br />contraintes. Ceci conduit à une équation aux dérivées partielles<br />(EDP). Parmi ces trois méthodes la méthode de type Monte-Carlo est<br />plus robuste et plus rapide.<br /><br />L'EDP obtenue est très similaire à celles utilisées pour la<br />désocclusion d'images. C'est pourquoi dans la deuxième partie de cette<br />thèse nous nous intéressons au problème de la désocclusion. Nous<br />présentons les méthodes existantes puis une nouvelle méthode basée sur<br />un système de deux EDPs dont l'une est inspirée de celle de la<br />première partie. Nous introduisons la probabilité de l'orientation du<br />gradient de l'image. Nous prenons ainsi en compte l'incertitude sur<br />l'orientation calculée du gradient de l'image. Cette incertitude est<br />quantifiée en relation avec la norme du gradient.<br /><br />Avec la quantification du non parallélisme de deux courbes, l'étape<br />suivante est la détection de la constance de largeur dans<br />les images. Il faut alors définir un seuil pour sélectionner les<br />bonnes réponses du détecteur et surtout parmi les réponses définir<br />des réponses ``maximales.'' Le système d'EDPs pour<br />la désocclusion dépend de beaucoup de paramètres, il faut trouver une<br />méthode de calibration des paramètres pour obtenir de bons résultats<br />adaptés à chaque image.