If people are expected to describe and distinguish among environments and architectural spaces, they will need tools to do so, and they will especially need a scale appropriate for the description of the physical environment.
It has been suggested that people are sensitive to and can respond to perceptual cues embedded within an environment – cues about the function of a given space, the type of people inhabiting an architectural structure, the behavior appropriate to the space, and so on. Any physical environment might be perceived as formal or informal, indicative of high or low status, warm or cold, public or private, and so on. References to this aspect of man's physical environment come from diverse sources. The architect Neutra (1954, 1956, 1958) refers to architecture not only as an instrument that caters to requirements and that shapes and conditions responses, but also as a reflector, or mirror, of conduct and living. After reviewing furniture arrangements found in the courtrooms of various countries, the law professor Hazard (1962) was led to conclude that it is not facetious to suggest that comparative-law scholars include the furniture arrangement in courtrooms within the scope of their study, for, as he noted, the arrangement will tell at a glance who has what authority. Redl and Wineman (1952) noted how sensitive otherwise defensive children are to the “atmosphere” suggested by architectural design, space distribution, furniture arrangement, and even the type of housekeeping.