Perceived physical experiences and mental representations.

In a recent paper, Stamps (2011a) reported findings on how two environmental properties, namely, boundary height and horizontal area within a boundary, influence impressions of enclosure. He found that the boundary height had a greater influence on impressions of enclosure than the horizontal area within a boundary. Enclosure correlated at 0.85 with boundary height and at -0.60 with horizontal area. This note suggests that environmental features are related not only to a concrete experiential variable but also to mental representations of abstract concepts.