The purpose of the present study was to identity the visual images of physical environment type which the creative students perceived as stimulating to their creativity. The target setting was confined to the galleries in Natural History Museums. The creative students were selected based on their own scores on the Invention Test by Finke (1990) and asked to rate the creative potential of a photograph. Physical characteristics of a photograph were rated according to 11 subcategories within the framework of the physical environment. Cluster analysis identified the six different types of physical environment. We evaluated what type of physical environment received the highest score on the creative potential. The profiles of the highest two types were described as 'dynamic, complex, and large images', and 'ordered, sophisticated, and large images'. In contrast, the lowest two types were characterized as 'closed, static, and small images' and 'monotonous and outdated images'. These descriptions suggest that the interaction between internal organizations and spatial forms in the physical environment categories led to the difference in the perceived creative potential. The other categories, light and color, didn't seem to contribute to the difference.
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