Kaplan, R., 1991, Environmental description and prediction: a conceptual analysis, in: Garling, T. & G.W. Evans, ‘Environment, cognition, and action: the need for integration’, Oxford university press, Oxford
- Author : Kaplan, R.
- Year : 1991
- Published in Book : Environment, cognition, and action: the need for integration
- Pages : 19-34
- Abstract in English : Assessment of the physical environment is a pervasive process it is an ongoing, usually nonconscious, ingredient of wakefulness. Only when the opportunity for sensory input is removed is this activity temporarily halted . In fact impairment to any single sense modality to the realization of how much one depended on that source of input to access the physical world. The good things as well as the bad, the interesting and mundane, the important and the trivial, and even the neutral ones all rely on assessment of the environment. Given the broad range of issues that this topic encompasses it is not surprising that there is a considerable literature focusing on different kinds of settings, on legal mandates. On methods, and on application. This chapter does not attempt to justice to all these concerns. In very general terms, the author has chosen to explore the following domains: (1) what is important, (2) what is valued, (3) by whom, and (4) what?. These questions, however, are so interrelated that they do not lend themselves to a systematic discussion. Instead, the chapter is organized into two major topics: description and prediction. The section on description examines the perception or experience of the environment. The section prediction, by contrast, brings in the issue of “assessment of what?” Central to both description and prediction are the questions of who decides what to include in the assessment and how the decision is made. The concluding section of the chapter explores there domains that require further attention: (1) both description and prediction are guided by unexamined assumptions. (2) The selection of attributes for the assessment can be strengthened by theory. (3) the role of expert in assessment process is necessary but not sufficient.
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: environment, assessment.