Streets of San Francisco: Brunswik's Lens Model Applied to Urban Inference and Assessment

Brunswik's probabilistic functionalism and the lens model offers a conceptual framework for linking environmental assessment with environmental perception and cognition in the study of such urban problems as inference and action regarding crime opportunity and crime vulnerability. An adaptation of Brunswik's lens model is applied to analysis of inferences about urban conditions. The ecological validity of cues generated by technical and observational assessments of residential streets in San Francisco is gauged for three conditions: traffic volume, average family income and residents' concern about crime. The functional validity of estimates of these conditions by expert judges is also appraised, and policy capturing is illustrated.