Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cos!smith
From: smith@COS.COM (Steve Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: spatial reference in natural language
Message-ID: <680@cos.COM>
Date: 15 Dec 87 17:58:59 GMT
References: <6818@sunybcs.UUCP> <1557@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Reply-To: smith@cos.UUCP (Steve Smith)
Organization: Corporation for Open Systems, McLean, VA
Lines: 31

In article <1557@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk> jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:

|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


Yeah, I just love it when my passenger says "turn that way!"  Especially
when it's dark.  Or when I really need to keep my eyes on the road.  Or
when the person giving directions is in the back seat.

It's the old "verbal vs visual" argument.  Which is "better" depends on
context.  Also, as in the example of giving directions, on physical
possibilities.

In general, giving directions is a real art.  Ask any rally driver or
navigator.
-- 
                           __
 -- Steve          /      /  \      /         "Truth is stranger than
S. G. Smith      I \ O    |  _    O \ I        fiction because fiction
smith@cos.com      /      \__/      /          has to make sense."