The Reliability of Ratings of the Familiarity of Environmental Stimuli
- 1 March 1985
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Environment and Behavior
- Vol. 17 (2) , 223-238
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916585172003
Abstract
The present study was conducted to determine the extent to which judges could reliably estimate the familiarity of photographic representations of urban locations. Three factors considered likely to be important in predicting the familiarity of particular locations are identified from the literature: distinctiveness, visibility and regularity of use, and functional or cultural significance. Five expert judges rated 170 locations on four scales of familiarity, and the data were assessed using a generalizability analysis. The principles involved in the interpretation of generalizability coefficients are introduced and the ratings made by the judges were found to be highly reliable. The importance of the three factors as predictors of familiarity is confirmed and contribution of this finding to the operational definition of environmental familiarity is discussed.Keywords
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- Cognitive Maps and Urban FormJournal of the American Planning Association, 1982
- Environmental Learning and Cognitive MappingEnvironment and Behavior, 1981
- Environmental cognition.Psychological Bulletin, 1980
- Self-ratings and judges' ratings of heterosexual social anxiety and skill: A generalizability study.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1979
- Cognitive and Behavioral Correlates of the Spatial EnvironmentEnvironment and Behavior, 1978
- The Development of Spatial Representations of Large-Scale EnvironmentsAdvances in Child Development and Behavior, 1975
- Styles and Methods of Structuring a CityEnvironment and Behavior, 1970
- Why Buildings Are KnownEnvironment and Behavior, 1969
- Estimating Variance Components from Mean Squares for Random and Mixed Effects Analysis of Variance ModelsPerceptual and Motor Skills, 1966
- Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of testsPsychometrika, 1951