MENTAL IMAGE AND INTERNAL REPRESENTATION

This research compares the cognitive abilities of novice and expert de signers in an attempt to better understand the nature of architectural knowledge and its relationship to design ability Two cognitive models are developed for investigation. One deals with the representational structure of knowledge; the other emphasizes the steps of mental opera tions in retrieving information from memory. Results of the study sugg est that architectural knowledge in memory is hierarchically built up through functional links that bind architectural components together E specially, expert designers seem to organize their information in a fu nctional way such that they are able to store more information, retrie ve it more rapidly, and more capably fit known objects into new contex ts. Experts also are superior in their ability to perceive and mentall y manipulate images. On the basis of these findings, it is suggested t hat one possible means to improving design ability is by increasing fa miliarity with functional relationships between architectural objects.