CONTENTS: Abstract 1: Introduction 1.1 Motivation 1.2 Aims and Objectives 1.3 Significance of the Study 1.4 Overview of the Thesis 2: Built Environment: Situated vs. Lab Studies. 2.1 Visual Studies in Environmental Research 2.2 Situated Visual Research 2.2.1 Image: Generalized Picture of the Physical World 2.2.2 Selectivity and the Mental Image 2.2.3 Imageability of the Environment 2.2.4 Legibility, Mystery and Surprise 2.2.5 Situated Studies: Insights and Limitations 2.3 Visual Research in Controlled Experimental Settings 2.3.1 Encoding and Decoding Non-verbal Communication 2.3.2 Recognition of Building Types 2.3.3 Recognition of Stylistic Differences 2.3.4 Subjective Impressions of Building Facades 2.3.5 Studies in Controlled Experimental Settings: Insights and Limitations 2.3.6 Visual Attributes: The Experimental Psychology Viewpoint 3: Visual Rationale: A Cognitive viewpoint 3.1. Form as Abstract Relationships 3.1.1 Need to Encode Relationships 3.1.2. Relationships as Basis of Organization: The Gestalt View 3.1.3 Lack of Unifying Framework 3.2. Treating Form as a Message: The Information Theory View 3.2.1 Influence of Information concepts 3.2.2 Measuring Visual Organization or Perceived Order 3.2.3 Revisiting Gestalt: Pragnanz in Informational Terms 3.3 Organization, Order and Processing Difficulty 3.3.1 Constraints and Memory for Patterns 3.3.2 Information Rich Points as Perceptual Focus 3.4 Visual Rationale: Insights and Limitations 4: Visual Exploratory Behavior 4.1 Vision and its Stages 4.2 Attention: Serial Visual Processing 4.2.1 Where and What views of Attention 4.2.2 Structure of the Visual System 4.2.3 Parallel Where and Serial What 4.2.4 Assembling Serial Information 4.2.5 Attention and Eye movements 4.3 Factors Influencing Eye Movements 4.3.1 Stimulus-driven control 4.3.2 Knowledge-driven control 4.4 Eye Tracking: Applications in Visual Research 4.4.1 Reading 4.4.2 Scene perception 4.4.3 Usability and Human-Computer Interface 4.4.4 Advertising and Market Research 4.4.5 Visual Art 4.4.6 Films 4.5 Capturing Exploratory in Visio-Spatial Scanpaths 4.5.1 Quantitative Measures 4.5.2 Categorical Measures 5: Acquisition and Analysis of Scanpaths 5.1 A Quick Look Back 5.2 Choice of Experimental Approach 5.3 Research Focus: Questions and Propositions 5.4 Design of the Experiment 5.4.1 Experimental Setup 5.4.2 Construction of Sample Visual Patterns 5.4.3 Choice of Viewers 5.4.4. Experimental Procedure Followed 5.5 Analysis of Scanpaths 5.5.1 Data Available from the iViewX System 5.5.2 Scheme for Analytical Treatment of Data 5.5.3 Scope and Limitations of the Analysis 6: Scanpath as Visio-spatial Behavior 6.1 Visual Exploration 6.1.1 Scanpath-characteristics: Number and/ vs. Spatial Dependency 6.1.2 Variety among Elements 6.1.3 Proposition 1 Revisited 6.2 Relationships between Visual Events 6.2.1 Fixations: Elements and/ vs. Spatial Dependency 6.2.2 Variety among Elements 6.2.3 Proposition 2 Revisited 6.3 Selective Perception of Visual Events 6.3.1 On-target Fixations: Number and/ vs. Spatial Dependency 6.3.2 Variety among Elements 6.3.3 Propositions 3(a) and 3(b) Revisited 6.4 Relative Importance of Visual Events 6.4.1 Cumulative Fixation Time: Number and/ vs. Spatial Dependency 6.4.2 Variety among Elements 6.4.4 Propositions 4(a) and 4(b) Revisited 7: Implicit Reasoning of Visual Decisions 7.1 Revisiting Objectives: A Synoptic View 7.2 Influencing Intent: Research Questions Revisited 7.2.1 Encouraging or Discouraging Visual Exploration 7.2.2 Creating and Destroying Visual Focus 7.2.3 Evoking Visual Interest 7.2.4 Sustaining Visual Interest 7.2.5 Insights at a Glance 7.3 Understanding the Concept of Dependency 7.3.1 Dependent and Independent Visio-spatial Decisions 7.3.2 Forms of Dependency in Design 7.4 The Visio-spatial field as a Design Tool 7.5 Positioning Renowned Works in the Visio-spatial Field 7.6 Possible Directions for Future Research Appendices. A1: Optical Structure of the Eye A2: Calculations of Visual Complexity A3: Scanpaths in Real Time:CD-ROM Glossary of Terms and Phrases used. References. Illustration Credits. Acknowledgments