Studies in visual perception of architectural spaces and rooms

TLDR: The hypothesis was substantiated that perceived size of space depends on perceived depth and judged size (rectangular area) might be a power function of judged depth times perceived width.

Abstract: Garling, T. Studies in visual perception of architectural spaces and rooms. I. Judgment scales of open and closed space. Scand. J. Psychol., 1969, io, 250–256.—Eight observers judged open and closed space, viewing spaces from different spots along a street in a small town. The spaces were viewed and judged either as wholes or parts by using a ratio scaling procedure. The observers were found to make reliable judgments of closed and open space. The function relating these judgment to each other approximated, however, a complementary relation as expected for category ratings. Judgments of whole spaces might be predicted from averaged judgments of their parts.