Abstract
The production and comprehension of route directions may be considered a successful adaptation in the face of a challenging wayfinding task-travel to an unfamiliar destination.Four important issues related to this adaptation are considered: The overall structure of direction-giving episodes, a component analysis of the content of route descriptions, suggested conventions for conveying wayfinding information, and individual differences in the production and comprehension of route directions. As a final consideration, it is suggested that technological innovations aimed at providing verbal information to assist wayfinding activity be incorporated within a framework focused on the ecology of wayfinding behavior.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, G. L. (1983). Children's representation and communication of spatial information. Presented at meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, Detroit.
Allen, G. L., & Ondracek, P. J. (1997). Children's acquisition of spatial knowledge from verbal descriptions. Presented at meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, Washington, DC.
Blades, M. (1991). The development of the abilities required to understand spatial representations. In D. Mark & A. Frank (Eds.), Cognitive and linguistic aspects of geographic space (pp. 81–115). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Blasch, B. B., & Long, R. G. (1993). Environmental information needs for wayfinding by special populations. Report for Project Number E-561RA. Decatur, GA: Rehabilitation Research and Developmental Center, VA Medical Center.
Francik, E. P., & Clark, H. H. (1985). How to make requests that overcome obstacles to compliance. Journal of Memory and Language, 24, 560–568.
Freundshuch, S. M., Mark, D. M., Gopal, M. D., & Couclelis, H. (1990). Verbal directions for wayfinding: Implications for geographic information and analysis systems. Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling. Zurich: University of Zurich.
Golledge, R. G., Klatzky, R. L., & Loomis, J. M. (1995). Cognitive mapping and wayfinding by adults without vision. In. J. Portugali (Ed.), The construction of cognitive maps (pp. 215–246). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Hill, M. R., (1987). “Asking directions” and pedestrian wayfinding”. Man-Environment Systems, 17, 113–120.
Kirasic, K. C. (1996).Spatial and propositional representations of novel environments. Presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA.
Kirasic, K. C., & Mathes, E. A. (1990). Effects of different means for conveying environmental information on elderly adults’ spatial cognition and behavior. Environment and Behavior, 22, 591–607.
Klein, W. (1982). Local deixis in route directions. In R. Jarvella & W. Klein (Eds.), Speech, place, and action (pp. 161–182). Chichester: Wiley.
Klein, W. (1983). Deixis and spatial orientation in route directions. In H. Pick, Jr. & L. Acredolo (Eds.), Spatial orientation: Theory, research, and application (pp. 283–311). New York: Plenum.
Kuipers, B. (1978). Modeling spatial knowledge. Cognitive Science, 2, 129–153.
Kuipers, B. (1983). The cognitive map: Could it have been any other way? In H. Pick, Jr. & L. Acredolo (Eds.), Spatial orientation: Theory, research, and application (pp. 345–359). New York: Plenum.
Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Mark, D. M., & Frank, A. U. (1989).Concepts of space and spatial language. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Computer-assisted Cartography (pp. 538–556), Baltimore, MD.
Maass, W. (1993). A cognitive model for the process of multimodal, incremental, route descriptions. In A. Frank & I. Compari (Eds.), Spatial information theory: A theoretical basis for GIS (pp. 1–13). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
McCalla, G. I., Reid, L., & Schneider, P. F. (1982). Plan creation, plan execution, and knowledge acquisition in a dynamic microworld. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 16, 89–112.
Parkes, D. & Dear, R. (1990). NOMAD: An interacting audio-tactile graphics interpreter. Newcastle, Australia: Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Newcastle.
Siegel, A. W., & White, S. H. (1975). The development of spatial representations of large-scale environments. In H. W. Reese (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 10; pp. 9–55). New York: Academic Press.
Smith, T. R., Pellegrino, J. W., & Golledge, R. G. (1982). Computational process modeling of spatial cognition and behavior. Geographical Analysis, 14, 305–325.
Streeter, L. A., Vitello, D., & Wonsiewicz, S. A. (1985). How to tell people where to go: comparing navigational aids. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 22, 549–562.
Vanetti, E. J., & Allen, G. L. (1988). Communicating environmental knowledge: The impact of verbal and spatial abilities on the production and comprehension of route directions. Environment and Behavior, 20, 667–682.
Ward, S. L., Newcombe, N., & Overton, W. F. (1986). Turn left at the church or three miles north: A study of direction giving and sex differences. Environment and Behavior, 18, 192–213.
Wunderlich, D., & Reinelt, R. (1982). How to get there from here. In R. Jarvella & W. Klein (Eds.), Speech, place, and action (pp. 183–201). Chichester: Wiley. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A0008169 00007
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Allen, G.L. (1997). From knowledge to words to wayfinding: Issues in the production and comprehension of route directions. In: Hirtle, S.C., Frank, A.U. (eds) Spatial Information Theory A Theoretical Basis for GIS. COSIT 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1329. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63623-4_61
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63623-4_61
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63623-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69616-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive