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"EVALUATION OF SPACIAL PERCEPTION BY PUPILS (STUDENTS) 
OF THE GEOGRAPHY COURSE THROUGH AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHIES" 
SONY CORTESE CANEPARO and JONIA MARA URBAN LOENERT 
FEDERAL UNIVERSITY - CURITIBA - PARANÁ - BRAZIL 
COMMISSION No: VI/7. 
i. INTRODUCTION. 
  
Phenomena of human perception are more and more interconnected 
with geographical studies considering the advanced knowledge in 
the field of human cognition, which are being developed in 
several segments of the psychological and geographical sciences. 
Geography is a bridge-science between the environment and man 
himself. The perception of the environment and of the phenomena 
related to it, depend on the particular universe each individual 
forms in his subconcience and on his culture. 
The main objective of this work is to verify the perception of 
the elements of the landscape, by pupils newly-admitted to the 
Geography course of the Federal University of Parana, Brazil,as 
well as to adequate the syllabuses (programmes) of some of the 
subjects, using aerial photographies. 
2. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW. 
  
According to TUAN, 1980, nowadays the researches in the field 
of Geography, concerning perception, were performed aiming at 
different goals and the resulting works are highly dissimilar 
and may be grouped under five kinds: 
a)the way human beings, in general, discern and frame their 
own world; 
b)environmental perception and attitude, as a dimension of 
culture or of interaction between culture and environ 
ment; 
c)attempts to infer environmental attitudes and values,with 
the aid of researches, questionnaires and psychological 
tests; 
d)changes in the environmental evaluation, as partofa stu 
dy of the history of culture; 
e)the meaning and history of environments, such as suburbs, 
country, etc. 
Still according to TUAN, the perception, attitude, value and vi 
sion(sight) of the world are among the key-words in the works 
produced in this area of knowledge. Perception is as much the 
answer of the senses to the external impulses, as wellas the de 
liberate activity in which certain phenomena are clearly regis 
tered, while others recede or are blocked. A great deal of what 
we discern has a value for ourselves, for biological survival or 
to render us favourable pleasures. 
  
The human being has in the sight one of his most valuable sen 
ses, possessing stereoscopical seeing. The human eyes are seated 
in a position that limits the visual field. Binocular vision 
helps man to see the objects very clearly as tridimensional bo 
dies. Even so, time and experience are necessary for the full de 
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