PERCEPTIONS OF INTERIOR SPACES

A transactional approach was used to examine responses to dining and l iving rooms. In experiment 1, 19 subjects evaluated a sample of 37 roo ms on nine scales and ranked ordered the scales as to difficulty of ap plication. A factor analysis yielded three room categories: Decorative ; Stylish; and Familiar. Subjects found it easier to make affective ra ther than cognitive judgments. Experiment 2 examined the effects of re lative involvement on responses to the three categories of rooms. Stim ulus materials included two matched sets (A and B) of 12 rooms (four f rom each category) and a detail from each (e.g. a lamp). Twenty-four m ale and 24 female subjects viewed the 12 rooms (set A or set B) and ra ted each one on six 7-point scales, wrote brief imaginative accounts o f an episode which might take place in each room, and performed a reco gnition task for details of the rooms. Subjects did the scale ratings either before or after writing the narrative accounts, and wrote each narrative either from first or third person perspectives in a within-s ubjects design. The desire to live in a room was best predicted by per ceived beauty and personal involvement. Involvement was fostered by ra ting the rooms before writing the stories and by a first person perspe ctive. Familiar rooms were preferred most, while Decorative rooms were seen as most informative about the person. (C) 1996 Academic Press Li mited.