The role of recipient perspective in giving and following wayfinding directions

Abstract

We examined how recipient perspective and descriptive features affect direction giving and following during wayfinding. In Experiment 1, participants provided directions from starting locations to destinations for fictional recipients driving through a town (route perspective) or looking at a map of the town (survey perspective). As expected, participants included left-right and landmarks more frequently when addressing a person driving in the town and cardinal descriptors more frequently when addressing a person looking at a map. In Experiment 2, participants rated the effectiveness of directions. Effective directions contained significantly more left-right references than did less effective directions. In Experiment 3, participants followed the best-and worst-rated directions. Unexpectedly, they navigated significantly faster when following the worst-rated directions. In Experiment 4, participants gave wayfinding directions for destinations in a familiar town. Again, direction features depended on recipient perspective, highlighting the dynamic nature of wayfinding processes.

Investigating the impact of different types of directions on wayfinding efficiency in an informal settlement

“…However, further studies are required to confirm this. Similar to the previous studies (Hund & Minarik, 2006;Hund et al, 2008;Hund & Padgitt 2010), our participants also found the cardinal directions difficult to follow and preferred left-right directions.…”

“…Earlier studies in America, Australia and Europe reported that people preferred left-right directions but performed better when using cardinal directions (Hund & Minarik, 2006;Hund et al, 2008;Hund & Padgitt 2010). The results of our study show the opposite.…”

“…Overall, the participants perceived the cardinal directions to be more difficult to follow than the left-right directions. This correlated with the findings of Hund et al, (2008) that individuals prefer directions that are based on left-right descriptors and landmarks. However, unlike…”

The impact of culture and recipient perspective on direction giving in the service of wayfinding

“…This finding replicated and extended the findings presented in Hund et al (2008). The behavior of the US participants is replicated here (in the compass rose group), while we show for the first time that the Dutch adapted their use of cardinal terms to the perspective of the recipient.…”

“…One limitation of the present project was its reliance on a tabletop model town. It is not clear whether the present results would generalize to larger spaces, though a previous report revealed similar patterns of features in wayfinding directions involving this model town and a familiar city provided by the US participants (Hund et al, 2008). Additional cross-cultural research is warranted to further specify the nature and locus of similarities and differences in wayfinding and spatial thinking more broadly.…”