Project Details
Projekt
Perception of interior space
Subject Area
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Term
from 2013 to 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 239239879
Since the early days of psychophysics, the relation between physical and perceived space has received much attention. For instance, Helmholtz demonstrated our excellent ability to gauge the distance of near objects when presented stereoscopically. However, our detailed knowledge of distance perception of objects strangely contrasts with a dearth of knowledge about the perception of inner space, say, the living room that surrounds us. There is no psychophysics of interior space to speak of. The experiments put forth in this proposal seek to provide beginnings of such psychophysics. Our preliminary experiments have shown that surface lightness of walls and ceiling does modify the perceived height of a room. These lightness effects are incompatible with the well-established effect that light objects appear closer. Thus, the perception of interior space appears to follow rather different guidelines than the perception of objects. We propose to collect psychophysical data to assess the effects of room structure (color, proportion, furnishing, etc.) on the perception of its volume. Doing so, we will collect metric judgments (width, height, depth, volume) and also the feeling of spaciousness. The stimuli will be virtual environment simulations of three-dimensional rooms as typical for living spaces. We have formulated four goals, each containing several experiments, that build our knowledge of perceived roominess and volume. In particular, we will test hypotheses regarding the effects of surface structure and the presence of objects in the room, as well as the hypothesis that compact rooms appear smaller than elongated rooms.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
