On the Determinants of Human Spatial Organization

Abstract

Humans routinely organize and reorganize their environments, such as keeping one’s bookshelves tidy or placing important documents in obvious locations to avoid forgetting about them. Spatial organization is widely thought to reduce both the physical and cognitive demands of a task in order to allow an individual to perform the task more easily. Yet, individuals do not always choose to engage in organizational behaviours when carrying out everyday tasks despite the utility of spatial organization. Across 10 studies, I examined the notion that human spatial organization is influenced by multiple, potentially competing, factors and provided evidence that individuals chose to engage in spatial organization not only when doing so resulted in a perceived benefit in task performance, but also when it aligned with their past habits and/or dispositions. The investigations presented in this dissertation highlight that the decision to engage in spatial organization is influenced by multiple factors that simultaneously compete for expression and offer a more nuanced and systematic understanding of human spatial organization.