Abstract and scenographic imagery: The effect of environmental form on wayfinding

The reported study was conducted to investigate the effect of environmental form on peoples' two types of path imagery: abstract and scenographic. Four hundred and ninety-eight students from three universities, which had different campus designs, were assigned to different group tasks, in which they were tested in both abstract (map-like) performance and scenographic (photographic composition) performance. Results revealed that students at the university of grid-patterned and repetitive design made significantly more errors in scenographic imagery than students at the other two universities. There were no significant differences among students of the three campuses on abstract imagery. Students' abstract performance was clearly superior to their scenographic one. Finally, the study was in support of the concept that we represent environmental knowledge through multiple images. (C) 1998 Academic Press.