Abstract:
Are window size preferences based on experience or based on cognitive evaluation of many factors about windows? The literature provides some indirect support for both arguments. The purpose of the present experiment was to determine if one of these explanations is better than the other. Approximately 150 undergraduates were run in each of four between-group experimental conditions (N=600). Each condition represented a combination of two of four possible questionnaires. The four questionnnaires assessed: (1) subjective personal preference (2) commonness (3) other people's preferences and (4) reasons underlying wanting or not wanting windows. Correlations were performed on the responses to the four questionnaires. Personal preferences were reliably correlated with the other three types of assessments. Analyses of variance were used to look at the differences between the first and second instruments, thus providing an assessment of context effects. Obtained context effects were very small, concerning just a few defferences in preferences between individual spaces on questionnaires. Theoretical implications and environmental applications are discussed.
