Search Results

The fourth chapter elaborates on the application and protocol analysis of verbal reports from think-aloud interviews introduced in Chapter 2 with step-by-step procedures; namely, how to use a cognitive model of information processing to analyze verbal reports of problem-solving processes and to draw inferences from the analysis. The chapter also includes discussion on how to direct the selection of tasks for think-aloud interviews, the selection of participants, the rating and scoring of problem-solving processes in verbal report data using standardized rubrics in conjunction with a cognitive model, the choice and calculation of inter-rater reliability, aggregating verbal report data, and applying inferential statistical procedures to data if desired, and drawing conclusions. Examples are used to illustrate ideas and procedures wherever possible.

Environmental assessment is closely related to the impact environments make on people. Places that induce anxiety and stress in childhood may be regarded with dismay later in life. The relationship between people and their environments may be conceived in physiological, psychological, or ethnological terms, or, which is often the case, by concepts borrowed from these three fields simultaneously. The description of the relationship can be kept either at a molecular or a molar level. The former may be exemplified by the effect of noise on blood pressure, while the latter may be the home's impact on the developing child. The present chapter constitutes an attempt to formulate a model at the molar level of human-environment interaction, largely based on knowledge from the neuropsychological discipline. For the sake of clarity I will first discuss some of the basic concepts employed in contemporary model building in neuropsychology. I will then suggest that these concepts may be brought together into what I have called the basic emotional process. I will support this construct by results from previous research on emotion, and also demonstrate the remarkable congruence between the physiological and semantic branches of this research. Using the emotional process as a focus, a model of human-environment interaction will be proposed, which describes how the person may feel and act under the influence of the physical and social environment, mediated by his or her individual reaction tendencies. The presentation will be illustrated by reference to field studies and experiments carried out by our group since the mid-1960s. Ample use will also be made of studies carried out elsewhere. However, the chapter does not, in the conventional sense, constitute a review of the existing literature on environmental assessment. Instead, it presents one view on assessment, which naturally leads to a specific organization of the existing evidence. One advantage of the proposed model is that it has the capacity to incorporate recent findings of the neurosciences in a detailed and precise way. The model may also be developed and tested further in this direction. Another advantage is that the model has proven to be a useful tool in the environmental design process.

Environmental assessment has been defined as “a general conceptual and methodological framework for describing and predicting how attributes of places relate to a wide range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses” (Craik & Feimer, 1987). A primary purpose for assessing environments is to provide valid and reliable information that has utility in environmental planning, design, and management decision making. Implicit in the assessment activity is the assumption of identifiable relationships of physical environmental factors with descriptive and evaluative assessments, and with predictions of responses to places conceptualized in plans and designs, but not yet built. This chapter addresses the utility of research findings. Three primary questions are posed. Why are some environmental assessment and cognition research findings used successfully in decision making while others are not? What factors contribute to these outcomes? And how important are physical environmental factors in planning, design, and management decision making? The preceding chapters by Rachel Kaplan, Reginald Golledge, and Harry Timmermans provide the background for the following discussion. The first section of this chapter presents a brief review of similarities and differences among the three preceding chapters, with specific attention directed to interpretations or definitions of the concepts of assessment and preference, the use of physical environmental variables in the assessment process, and the roles of laypersons and experts in assessment. Potential uses for and applications of environmental assessment research are described in the second section. This is followed by a discussion of the differences between instrumental and conceptual applications and of factors that have been identified as influencing applications, factors such as communications between researchers and users, responsibilities for problem definition, and the context within which the research is conducted. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the opportunities for and probable limitations on applications of the preceding chapters by R. Kaplan, Golledge, and Timmermans. Four concepts and elements that are addressed in the three chapters have been selected for purposes of structuring a comparison among them. These concepts and elements—assessment, preference, roles of laypersons and experts, and physical environmental factors—are particularly salient to the issue of research applications.