Permeability and Environmental Enclosure

Theories by J. J. Gibson and H. Hediger suggest that environmental enclosure is important. Re-examination of their work suggests that judged degree of enclosure might be influenced by permeability of spatial regions. This study reports effects on judgments of enclosure by permeability and two other factors, horizontal size of rooms and heights of walls. 64 respondents rated 24 scenes on the criterion of enclosure. Pearson correlations for judged enclosure with the three factors were .68 for height, -.51 for permeability, and -.31 for horizontal size. Interactions between the factors had very small effects on judged enclosure.