Visual Permeability, Locomotive Permeability, Safety, and Enclosure

Abstract

Recent neurophysiological findings indicate that there is a region in the brain that responds strongly to enclosure and even more strongly to gaps in enclosure. Under evolutionary theory, that sensitivity could be explained by the effects of enclosure on safety. This article reports four experiments with dependent variables of open or enclosed and safe or threatening and independent variables of gaps, size of gaps, location of gaps, orientation of gaps, boundary height, locomotive permeability, and visual permeability. Impressions of enclosure were much more influenced by visual permeability than by locomotive permeability, but the reverse was found for impressions of safety, which were more strongly influenced by locomotive than by visual permeability.