Spatial mental imagery gap of student–studio lecturer and client–designer/architect by virtual reality and non-virtual reality

This study used the verbal protocol method to examine differences in perceptions of spatial mental imagery between students and studio lecturers and between clients and designers/architects, which lead to interpretational bias between groups of respondents regarding interior spaces. Individual perceptions of virtual space dimensions were captured by the 3D application, Associative Words Generator© (AWG©), which revealed impressions of the four respondent groups, using associative concept networks analysis on the visualization of virtual space with a database of 16,200 associative words. This study determined AWG© reduced the visual discrepancy gap during design critic and design consultation. Comparison of the results of the associative words generated during non-VR mental imagery and the VR session (AWG©) indicated that the student group most effectively used the VR. The lecturer group exhibited a thorough understanding of interior design and space architecture in their response in non-VR and VR sessions, which created a mental spatial imagery gap between the students and lecturers. The client group was inexperienced in interior design and architecture, resulting in different outcomes than the designer/architect group. In the VR session, the student and client groups more easily accepted visualizations generated by AWG, because they had fewer experiences and references than the lecturers and designers/architects, and thus, accepted the AWG virtual space visualization stimuli. The lecturer and designer/architect groups shared experiences that affected their expectations in responding to the generated visualizations, resulting in difficulty to accept the AWG virtual space visualization stimuli.