Empirical investigations of the processing of instructions: the influence of semantic and contextual factors

Weiß P, Hildebrandt B, Rickheit G. Empirische Untersuchungen zur Rezeption von Handlungsanweisungen: Der Einfluss semantischer und kontextueller Faktoren. Sprache & Kognition. 1999;18(1-2):39-52.Empirical investigations of the processing of instructions: the influence of semantic and contextual factors. Verbs are very important for the processing of instructions. In the Collaborative Research Centre 360 (SFB 360) above all verbs of action for construction tasks play a role. To understand an instruction adequately not only: the semantics of verbs but also the context of objects in a situation must be taken into account. Three experiments are reported: In a preliminary one (n = 23), we tested with three verbs the course and the basic design of the experiments. In experiment (n = 50), the specificity of verbs and of object namings and their interaction with the visual context factors referential (un-)ambiguity of color and referential (un-)ambiguity of function of a target abject were examined. In experiment 2 (n = 22), we tested the positions of the verbs (with six of the eight pairs of verbs) in the instructions and their interaction with these contest factors. The results show that the processing of instructions to manipulate objects is determined by both linguistic and visually available information