Typicality of Objects in Urban Park Scenes

Abstract

Typicality is a basic property of any categorization process, including the categorization of environmental scenes. We tried to judge whether a scene as a type of situation influences judgements about the typicality of elements when considering the part-whole relationship between the element and the scene. The subjects were asked to rate typicality on a scale of 1 to 7 and to give a word that defined the urban park elements appearing in a park scene or on a blank background. Some elements (wastepaper basket, fountain, street lamp, and statue) were depicted with two styles (classical and contemporary). The results indicate that the scene or blank background had no effect on the typicality scores but subjects had difficulty providing an appropriate word when elements with a contemporary style were shown on a blank background.