The lack of knowledge concerning the relationships between the physical environment and people's behavior was discussed in relation to the inadequacy of today's architectural programming. Possible applications of man-environment studies were suggested. Nature of the environmental information was analyzed, and a term 'cognitive distance' was defined. Essential variables that affect the construction of the mental map and the perception of distance were derived primarily from previous studies. The city of Vancouver was analyzed utilizing methods originated by K. Lynch, and a survey was conducted in the city to examine relations between the various variables and the perception of distance. The type of the distance examined was 'inward (toward downtown)’, 'ego-centric', and urban scale(4 mile) 'cognitive distance'. Results: Following four variables seemed to have effects on the perception of distance; sex, age, mode of transportation, and the score on 'Thing-orientation scale'. Male tended to be more accurate in their estimations (or to estimate the particular distance of 4 mile as being shifter) than female Ss. Ss aged over 20, or car drivers, or Ss with higher T-scores were also more accurate than younger Ss, or bus riders or car passengers, or Ss with lower T-scores, respectively. Concerning the possible effects on perception by physical variables, our results were unclear mainly due to the differing characteristics of the Ss at the four locations. Implications of results were discussed. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

This work is concerned with volume as presented in a painting. The investigation begins with a painting of drawn geometric shapes. Each successive painting problem explores additional facets of variations from this basic problem. There is a total of six painting problems. The general intent of these problems is to investigate the following in regard to volume of experience: color contrast in hue, value, intensity, proportion and complement pattern variations the color phenomenon of simultaneous contrast The medium is acrylic polymer emulsion applied with brush on stretch canvas.

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Men (N = 25) and women (N = 27} rated as either high or low in visuospatial ability as assessed on a battery of visuospatial tests (Card Rotations, Mental Rotations, Minnesota Paper Form Board), performed a computer-administered task requiring the mental rotation of abstract geometric shapes presented sequentially, either alone or with a concurrent task of repeating sets of six random digits. Gender and skill-level effects were found. Men were faster than women, and high visuospatial subjects were faster than low. Individual performance did not significantly differ between the single- and dual-task conditions, either in terms of mean response time or rate of mental rotation. This finding is counter to previous studies (Corballis, 1986; Kail, 1991) that found subjects performed slower overall in dual-task conditions, but did not differ in terms of rotation rate. Differences in group variability were also found; that is, women were more variable in response time and error rates than men, and lows were more variable than highs. The gender differences are interpreted in terms of variability; with the major finding that for rotation rate, intercept, and errors, only within the low visuospatial skill category did women perform poorer than men. Furthermore, only women in the low visuospatial skill group showed the classic mental rotation function of increasing response time with increasing angular disparity. / Master of Science

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Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1987.