Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!ukc!its63b!hwcs!jack
From: jack@cs.hw.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: spatial reference in natural language
Message-ID: <1557@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Date: 1 Dec 87 20:14:46 GMT
References: <6818@sunybcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Organization: PISA Project, Glesga Yoonie
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[ignore the above email address and use my signature]

There is one kind of spatial language you want to avoid AT ALL COSTS in anything
that will be interacting with car drivers (or people controlling other fast and
dangerous machines) - "left" and "right". I can't remember the exact source
for this, but it has been shown that it is very much harder for people to map 
these words onto specific spatial directions than to react to a pointing finger
or equivalent. (this is certainly true for me - if I'm navigating for someone
driving fast through town, I can't give accurate directions verbally; I have to
point). I believe there is a great deal of  variation in people's ability
to do this.

-jack

-- 
ARPA: jack%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk
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Mail: Jack Campin, Computing Science Department, University of Glasgow,
      17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland (041 339 8855 x 6045)