Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(continued)
“Information is only useful pragmatically when it influences a decision”, and
thus, pragmatic information content can only be determined for a particular
user in a particular decision making situation. “All messages which lead to the
same actions have the same information content, which is the minimum [size
of the instruction] to determine the action [for this user]. If two users differ in
the action they consider, their [situations] differ and therefore the information
they deduce from the information content of the same message is different”
(p. 47).
A route description is revealing a mental spatial representation in two ways. One
insight is given by the actual route chosen, among all possible. Yet the only valid
conclusion is that this route is known by the speaker, and no inference can be drawn
on the set of alternative routes available to this speaker. The other insight to the
speaker's mental spatial representation is the structure and richness in which this
route is described. Which brings up the issue of the quality of route descriptions.
What are the characteristics of a good route description given that descriptions are
context dependent? More specifically, is a richer route description a better route
description? Or is at least the person with the richer mental spatial representation
producing better route descriptions? It should become clear from these questions
that route descriptions can only provide a limited insight into the content of mental
spatial representations, and they reveal more about the spatial and verbal abilities of
the speaker working with mental spatial representations.
The hint on pragmatic information content should help clarifying a notion
of quality. The formal measure of pragmatic information content is based on
the principles of brevity and relevance. Both principles were among Grice's
conversational maxims for formulating a message: be brief, be relevant. Similarly,
Sperber and Wilson in their relevance theory assume that the recipient of the
message searches first for relevant interpretations, and does not search further for
alternative meanings as long as no conflicts require a revision of beliefs [ 202 ] . Even
a cognitive motivation for these principles can be given by referring to the capacity
of the human short-term memory, as Clark did [ 27 ] :
In general, evolved creatures will neither store nor process information in costly ways when
they can use the structure of the environment and their operations upon it as a convenient
stand-in for the information-processing operations concerned. That is, know only as much
as you need to know to get the job done. (p. 64)
Based on these two principles it can be stated that all route descriptions enabling
an instruction follower to realize a certain route are equivalent from a pragmatic
perspective. This means:
 
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