Research on psychological restoration and restorative environments is a needed complement to work on stress and environmental stressors. Two laboratory experiments tested the utility of two restorative environments theories, one concerned with directed attention capacity renewal and the other with stress reduction and associated changes in emotion. Various strategies were employed to distinguish restorative effects from other effects, to limit the role of arousal reduction in attentional restoration, and to begin mapping the time course for the emergence of outcomes. Both experiments tested for differential emotional and performance effects as a function of photographic environmental simulation (natural or urban environment). Across the experiments the natural environment simulation engendered generally more positive emotional self-reports. That consistent performance effects were not found in either study suggests that attentional restoration as reflected in performance is a more time-intensive process.

This study starts from the hypothesis that sign perception depends on the motivational valences of signs. Two groups of drivers with different amounts of driving experience rated Swedish road signs on dimensions assumed to indicate perceived sign utility. The ratings were performed against a scenario that included traffic officials' intentions to simplify the sign system. One dimension was amount of reduction in frequency of occurrence; subjects indicated percentages of reduction they believed to be reasonable. A second dimension was appropriateness of complete elimination of a sign from the traffic environment; subjects rated the degree to which elimination was reasonable. Subjective frequency of sign occurrence was rated last. Construct validation procedures showed strong correlations between reduction and elimination ratings only for the higher‐experience group. Contrary to expectation, both groups showed the same high level of positive attitudes toward all signs. As expected, frequency was a judgmental base for utility, though weakly, except for permissive signs. It was more extensively related to utility for the higher‐experience group, particularly for percentage ratings. Curvilinear relationships obtained between frequency and utility for permissive and road guidance signs.

Two groups of subjects with varying amounts of experience with the city in which they lived judged from memory distances between familiar locations. The distance judgments were processed by a multidimensional scaling algorithm (MULTISCALE) that estimates the parameters of a power function transformation of the response scale and the coordinates of the locations in k-dimensional euclidean space. The results for both subject groups suggested that inaccuracies of distance cognition do not reflect the noneuclidean nature of urban cognitive maps but are caused by response bias. Key Words: spatial behaviorurban cognitive mapseuclidean-noneuclidean geometrydistance judgmentsresponse bias

Two experiments examined whether differences in elevation of the terrain are encoded in cognitive maps of outdoor environments. In Experiment 1, two groups of subjects who had travelled a varying number of times between a set of locations made direct estimates in metres of the differences in elevation between the locations. The results showed that subjects in both groups had knowledge of elevation but those for whom the terrain was less familiar tended to exaggerate the differences. In Experiment 2, decision times were measured of responses to the question whether one location is below or above another one. Neither for subjects who were more, nor for subjects who were less familiar with the terrain, did the decision times vary with the distances between the locations, thus failing to support the hypothesis that differences in elevation are retrieved by a process of 'mental travel'.

□ A psychological, information-processing, model of spatial orientation and wayfinding in the designed environment is proposed. The model identifies a number of basic cognitive processes such as recognition of parts of an environment (e.g., landmarks), localization of reference points, and recall, selection, and sequencing of destinations (choices, decisions, and planning). On the basis of the model, a system for classifying environments is suggested as a heuristic in predicting the extent of spatial orientation and way finding problems. Some specific and general methodological suggestions for postoccupancy evaluation are offered. □

A theory about the acquisition and use of cognitive maps of largescale everyday environments is presented. The basic assumptions of the theory are (1) people's behavior in social and physical environments is determined by action plans, and, if the execution of such action plans requires traveling, plans for how to travel, termed travel plans, are formed and executed; (2) the cognitive maps of large-scale and medium-scale environments acquired are adapted to facilitate movement and travel, and contain information about destinations for travel, spatial information, and travel instructions; (3) cognitive maps are initially acquired in connection with the formation of travel plans and, at the later stages of acquisition, the execution of travel plans (requiring active monitoring) constitutes a more important set of conditions for acquisition. The principles of internal representation of the cognitive map are also discussed.

The hypothesis that the relative locations of the landmarks in a town is not accurately remembered before the paths between them have been learned was refuted in the present study showing that the reverse may in fact be true. In two of the three experiments carried out, undergraduates were found to give accurate estimates of the relative directions to different landmarks in an average‐sized Swedish town (Umeå with about 80 000 residents), even if the subjects had been living there no more than two to four months. However, for some reason which could not be disentangled relative distance estimates turned out to be less accurate. In the third experiment, undergraduates who had lived for two months in the town by contrast hardly remembered which places among designated ones they would pass by the most direct path, whereas those who had been one year longer in the town were much better although not perfect. Finally, no sex differences were observed and there were no important differences depending on whether memory was tested for the central area of the town or for the whole town including the outskirts.

The accuracy with which orientation is maintained in unfamiliar environments during body rotation was investigated by showing subjects ( n = 16) a target in different directions (15° to 60° relative to the direction faced), then after varied retention intervals (7 to 14 sec.) requiring them to rotate their bodies 0° to 75° and, having completed rotation, to estimate numerically the direction to the target which by then was out of sight. By contrast to a perceptual baseline condition in which the target was visible, the subjects overestimated the target direction by an amount which increased linearly with the angle of body rotation. This overcompensation differed from the larger undercompensation that had been observed previously for straight walking, which suggested that different mechanisms produced the errors.

Accuracy of maintenance of orientation during locomotion in unfamiliar environments was investigated by a laboratory procedure in two experiments. In a dark room, subjects were directed to a starting point, shown a target consisting of a point light on the floor, and required to walk straight by following a moving light line (1.18 m/sec) to a stopping point 1.4 to 11.0 m away. From the stopping point, the subjects numerically estimated the direction and distance to the target, which by then was out of sight. In contrast to control conditions with the target visible, the constant and variable errors were larger, and the constant errors varied with locomotion distance in a way that suggested proportional displacements of the target in the same direction as the subjects walked. Forgetting may in part account for the errors, but the main factor was assumed to be accumulated errors in recurrent central processing of the sensory information received about locomotion distance and target location.

How maintenance of orientation during locomotion in unfamiliar environments is accomplished was investigated by having subjects walk behind a moving light line (1.12 m/sec) in a dark room and, from a stopping point, numerically estimate direction and distance to the starting point. Two linear distances (5.0–8.4 m) and the angle of direction change (45, 90, and 135 deg) were orthogonally varied as 12 locomotion patterns. Eight high‐school students were assigned to each of three conditions, two in which the starting point was invisible, one in which it was visible. In one of the former conditions the subjects counted backwards rapidly during walking. Lower accuracy and longer latency times were found in the counting condition whilst the other two conditions differed only slightly. The results suggested that accurate maintenance of orientation is achieved by recurrent encoding, coordination and decoding of information about direction change and locomotion distance, processes which demand central processing capacity and therefore are interfered with by a concurrent task.

How maintenance of orientation during locomotion in unfamiliar environments is accomplished was investigated by presenting subjects ( n = 32) a target in different locations in a dark room, having them walk linearly behind a moving light line (1.12 m/sec.), and from a stopping point 12 and 22.6 m away, numerically estimate direction and distance to the target. An equal number of subjects was assigned to each of 2 × 2 treatment levels: the starting point either visible or invisible from the stopping point and the target either visible only from the starting point or throughout each trial. In the conditions with invisible targets there were mainly negative effects of the visible starting point, partially the same as those previously obtained for a concurrent task during locomotion. The results suggested that maintenance of orientation is achieved by recurrent central processing of information, which if postponed leads to impaired performance mainly because forgetting occurs.