COMMUNICATING ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE - THE IMPACT OF VERBAL AND SPATIAL ABILITIES ON THE PRODUCTION AND COMPREHENSION OF ROUTE DIRECTIONS

The impact of verbal and spatial abilities on the communication of route information was investigated using a two-part procedure. Initially, subjects were selected for inclusion in four groups based on their combination of spatial and verbal abilities. Subsequently, the performance of high spatial-high verbal, high spatial-low verbal, low spatial-high verbal, and low spatial-low verbal subjects was measured on tasks requiring the comprehension and production of route directions. No differences were found with regard to subjects' abilities to comprehend route directions. However, the results suggested that spatial abilities are very important in the production of efficient route directions and that verbal abilities are related to subjects' tendency to conform to certain proposed linguistic conventions regarding the communication of route knowledge. (Author/TRRL)

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00139165
• Corporate Authors:

  Sage Publications Limited

  28 Banner Street
  London,   England 
• Authors:
  • Vanetti, E J
  • Allen, G L
• Publication Date: 1988-11

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 667-682
• Serial:
  • Environment and Behavior
  • Volume: 20
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0013-9165
  • EISSN: 1552-390X
  • Serial URL: http://eab.sagepub.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Comprehension; Driver information systems; Itinerary
• Uncontrolled Terms: Guidance
• ITRD Terms: 2209: Comprehension; 9104: Guidance; 699: Itinerary
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00492795
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 31 1990 12:00AM