ABSTRACT
The feeling of orientation is essential to our well-being within the environment. Visual access, or the ability to differentiate environmental features, is a factor that influences people's spatial orientation. These internal constructions arise from a developmental process encompassing all aspects of our lives, and they form the basis of our beliefs about and actions. Boulding calls this important mental construct the image, and argues that it is the basis for all action when he writes, 'the act depends on the whole cognitive-valuation structure, that is, on the image'. The type of environmental knowledge contained in cognitive maps has been the subject of considerable study. Observation and behavioral mapping is a method for describing what people do in the designed environment. To supplement information about the flow patterns of people using a high school campus, a series of real-time studies was conducted to understand how students, teachers, and staff use the environment and how they feel about their place.
