2016 Volume 81 Issue 727 Pages 1895-1903
The purpose of this study is to clarify how distortions of cognition caused by expectancy effects as noted in the field of interpersonal cognition influence the conceptualization of urban space. To study the influence of expectancy effects, we conducted an exploratory wayfinding experiment in an existing urban area and extracted information on the environment from the subjects in the form of language data to find out how the subjects conceptualized urban space. Additionally, we also sought to clarify the causes for their conceptualizations by comparing conceptualization models based on the presence and absence of expectancy effects.
A grid-shaped area of Tokyo bordered by four straight roads was selected for the walk-through experiment. To clarify the expectancy effects, cards were prepared with a list of keywords and distributed to half of the subjects, 10 people in Group S (S1—S10), while the other half, 10 people in Group M (M1—M10), were not given cards. The keywords listed on the cards were four words related to the conceptualization of urban space as reported in our previous paper (street network, physical elements, time, and atmosphere), and one additional word, history. The subjects were told to walk freely through the designated area and to raise their hand when they felt they had a sufficient grasp of the urban space. The subjects were interviewed after the walk-through and asked about their impressions of the urban space. The interviews were recorded using an IC recorder. The language data acquired in this way was later analyzed using a qualitative modified grounded theory approach.
In the interviews conducted after the experiment, we got 157 words of linguistic data from Group S, and 193 words from Group M. After processing conceptualization for each group, we ended up with 18 concepts for each of the two groups, for a total of 36 concepts. These concepts were then sorted into conceptual models resulting in four core categories as explained below.
(1) The conceptualization of urban space is achieved at the point in time when the four core categories (street network, physical elements, time, and atmosphere) are formed within the mind of the subject, regardless of whether there are or are not expectancy effects.
(2) When only some aspects of urban space are emphasized, people are unable to capture the overall street network or atmosphere of the area.
(3) When peoples' preconceptions do not match the atmosphere created by the unique physical elements of an area of urban space, expectancy effects take hold to emphasize the heterogeneous and unexpected aspects, leading to exaggerated perceptions even of the behavior and bustle of the people in the area. On the other hand, when preconceptions and atmosphere do match, people tend to perceive physical elements in terms of time, i.e., in terms of how old or unchanged those elements may be.
This study clearly showed that in the conceptualization of urban space, expectancy effects can distort the perception of space, just as they do in the field of interpersonal cognition. In other words, expectancy effects can lead to incorrect interpretations of the intrinsic characteristics of urban space.
