The process of answering direction-giving questions when someone is lost on a university campus: The role of pragmatics

The role of recipient perspective in giving and following wayfinding directions

“…Contrary to our expectations, distance was mentioned more frequently when addressing someone driving in the town than when addressing someone looking at a map, but the overall frequency was quite low in both cases. It is possible that these differences in feature frequency across recipient perspectives resulted from participants' shifts in perspective (Golledge, 1999;Hirtle & Hudson, 1991;Pazzaglia & DeBeni, 2001;Shelton & McNamara, 2004;Siegel & White, 1975;Taylor & Tversky, 1996) and/or pragmatic considerations, particularly communicative conventions for providing directions (Allen, 2000;Golding et al, 1996;Lloyd, 1991;Ward et al, 1986).…”

“…It is possible that these changes in responding result from a combination of shifts in perspective (i.e. differences in cognitive processing; for related ideas, see Golledge, 1987Golledge, , 1999Hirtle & Hudson, 1991;Pazzaglia & DeBeni, 2001;Shelton & McNamara, 2004;Siegel & White, 1975;Taylor & Tversky, 1992 and pragmatic considerations, particularly communicative conventions for providing directions in diverse contexts (Allen, 2000;Golding et al, 1996;Lloyd, 1991;Ward et al, 1986). These findings suggest not only fine-tuning to listener perspective, but adaptive flexibility in providing wayfinding directions.…”

“…Moreover, the nature of the wayfinding task faced by direction givers and receivers affects their interactions. For instance, Plumert, Carswell, DeVet, & Ihrig (1995) demonstrated that participants organize their descriptions differently when describing a space than when giving directions to a traveller (see also Golding et al, 1996;Plumert, Spalding, & Nichols-Whitehead, 2001;Taylor, Naylor, & Chechile, 1999). When describing the location of a coffee cup, for instance, people note that it is on the desk, in the office, on the fourth floor of the psychology building.…”

“…To avoid confusion, direction givers and receivers must coordinate their efforts by selecting an appropriate perspective or frame of reference, assessing the familiarity of the environment, and understanding their individual skills and preferences, as well as cultural conventions for communication (Allen, 2000;Allen, Kirasic, & Beard, 1989;Carlson-Radvansky & Radvansky,1996;Levinson, 1996;Plumert, Pick, Marks, Kintsch, & Wegesin, 1994;Plumert & Strahan, 1997;Taylor & Tversky, 1992;Wright et al, 1995). For instance, Golding et al (1996) found that when approached by a student requesting wayfinding directions, participants asked clarifying questions to be sure that they were describing the correct destination and to assess the requester's knowledge of the campus. This example demonstrates two ways direction givers and receivers coordinate their efforts to facilitate successful wayfinding.…”

Language and spatial cognition: comparing the roles of landmarks and street names in route instructions

“…Route describers have to find a way of referring to them. It is worth noting that most studies of route directions have been conducted in open (campus-like) environments (see Daniel, Tom, Manghi, & Denis, 2003;Golding, Graesser, & Hauselt, 1996;Lovelace, Hegarty, & Montello, 1999). In these environments, paths often have no specific names, and this probably makes it less likely that people will refer to them in their discourse.…”