Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Gestalt theory studied the basic laws of visual or aural perception. However, the laws
can also be observed in thought processes, memories, and the understanding of time.
It started from the observation that perception easily separates figures from ground
by some fundamental rules of configurational qualities. These Gestalt rules are:
Proximity
Perceived phenomena near to each other are more likely perceived as
Gestalt.
Similarity Perceived phenomena similar to each other are more likely perceived
as Gestalt.
Simplicity Simpler explanations for a configuration are more likely to be selected
by perception.
Continuity
Configurations in a linear order are more likely perceived as belonging
together.
Closure Closed configurations are more likely to be perceived as Gestalt.
Joint destiny Perceived phenomena that move in the same direction are more
likely perceived to belong together.
Phenomena—objects or events—experienced as landmarks must have strong
(visual, aural, or other, but for humans predominantly visual) figure qualities.
Considering these Gestalt rules, they must have strong local contrast by being
dissimilar or far from the rest. To find out more about salient phenomena in mental
spatial representations, Appleyard asked people in a survey for the buildings in
their home town they could memorize best [ 8 ] . The collected buildings were
characterized by Appleyard with respect to a set of properties. The correlation of
properties with the number of nominations was used to identify the significant
properties. He found:
Form properties
Inflow of people, contour, size, form, and visual attributes of the
facade.
Visibility properties Frequency of visibility, prominence of the view point, and
nearness of the building to its view points.
Semantic properties
Intensity of use of the building (traffic), or uniqueness of use.
Appleyard observed that the more a building stands out the more likely it is that
it comes to mind in such a survey. He found also that the correlation between
the number of nominations and the significant properties shows both in local
comparisons (i.e., for a neighborhood) as well as in global comparisons (i.e., for
the city), which relates to our prior distinction of local and global landmarks.
More recent investigations to characterize the properties of landmarks are made
by Sorrows and Hirtle [ 201 ] andBurnettetal. [ 19 ] . They also identified proper-
ties such as uniqueness, distinguished location, visibility, and semantic salience.
Another obvious property should be permanence (e.g., [ 20 ] , p. 67). Studies with
children have shown that they also choose non-permanent objects, while adults do
not [ 6 , 29 ] . Sorrows and Hirtle [ 201 ] distinguished in particular:
 
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