Five items assess how visually complex a stimulus appears to a viewer, capturing multiple dimensions of perceptual complexity: overall complexity, boundary clarity of objects, the perceived number of objects present, the sense that some parts are hidden or invisible, and whether the scene feels chaotic or organised. The scale is designed for use with visual stimuli such as product packages, store environments, websites, or images. A blank in each item should be filled with a generic label for the stimulus type (e.g., 'photo', 'store', 'package').
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
The scale appears to have been created by Orth and Crouch (2014); Pieters, Wedel, and Batra (2010) were cited in relation to the construct but did not contribute the scale items. The response format was not described and the exact verbal anchors are unknown -- a 7-point format is inferred, with speculated anchors listed in items_full brackets. Item 5 ('To what degree is the scene either chaotic or organized?') introduces directional ambiguity: if higher scores indicate greater chaos, this item should be reverse-scored for a composite complexity score; if higher scores indicate greater organisation, no reversal is needed. Researchers should carefully determine the intended directionality and consider whether item 5 needs recoding or exclusion. Alpha was only .75 in Study 2, below the conventional .80 threshold, suggesting modest reliability in some contexts.
Orth, U. R., & Crouch, R. C. (2014). Is beauty in the aisles of the retailer? Package processing in visually complex contexts. Journal of Retailing, 90(4), 524-537.
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