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An interdisciplinary debate on project perspectives

Table 5 Methodological issues raised in past research and future responses

From: Evidence for prospect-refuge theory: a meta-analysis of the findings of environmental preference research

Theme

Issue

Future research

Scale

Too many of the empirical studies in this field rely on small (<20) groups of participants. This leads to a lack of statistical significance

Larger, more statistically rigorous studies are required to methodically investigate these issues

Homogeneity

There is a strong tendency for the survey participants in past research in this field to be young (18–21 year old) university students who have grown up in middle class Western environments

A greater diversity of survey participants (age, gender, race, background, ethnicity and culture) is needed to methodically investigate these issues

Influence of enculturation and advantage

It is rare for any information to be collected about survey participants’ level of education, social opportunities or economic status. All of these factors potentially have an impact on the interpretation of the results

Information of this type should be collected to enable the results to be cross-referenced to social, economic and educational status

Background venues

Relatively few past studies present a detailed rationale for the ‘views’ (venue backdrops) chosen. Those views are typically treated as incidental to the research, but this has not yet been proven

A study should be undertaken which varies venue backdrops and/or backdrops and foregrounds, but without varying the geometry of the setting. This will provide deeper insights into the impact of the venue

Graduated stimuli

In past research there is a lack of consideration of the nature and gradation of stimuli

Stimuli design should be carefully graduated (in terms of their changing characteristics) to provide a higher quality of information about the relationship between space and environmental preference

Correlation of empirical and mathematical data

The relationships between human perceptions and spatial geometry have only been partially established, leading to several difficulties relating empirical and computational results

There is a need for more research which rigorously correlates human perceptions and preferences with environmental geometry (isovists and fractals)