tailieunhanh - Báo cáo khoa học: "WHERE QUESTIONS"

When (i) is posed in California (2) is the appropriate answer to it. This is the case even though (3) and (h) are also true characterizations of the location of the Empire State Building. The pattern of appropriateness alters, however, when the locale where the question presented changes. Thus, when (i) is asked in Israel, (3) is the appropriate answer, whereas when it is asked in Manhattan, (I~) is the answer that should be given. The foregoing observations, originally made by Rumelhart (197h) and by Norman (1973), suggest the following. First, it is not enough for answers to questions. | WHERE QUESTIONS Benny Shanon The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Consider question 1 and the answers to it 2 - U . 1 Where is the Empire state Building 2 In New York. 3 In the . U On 3 th Street and 3rd Avenue. When 1 is posed in California 2 is the appropriate answer to it. This is the case even though 3 and II are also true characterizations of the location of the Empire state Building. The pattern of appropriateness alters however when the locale where the question presented changes. Thus when 1 is asked in Israel 3 is the appropriate answer whereas when it is asked in Manhattan u is the answer that should be given. The foregoing observations originally made by Rumelhart 1971 and by Norman 1973 suggest the following. First it is not enough for answers to questions to be semantically true they have to be pragmatically appropriate as well. Second appropriateness is not solely determined by the content of the particular propositions in question but also by the identity of the participants in the particular conversational situation and their locale. In other words for a person or for a machine for that matter to answer questions it is not enough to survey one s memory and retrieve information pertaining to the query posed rather a selection algorithm has to be used so that an appropriate response would be given. The specification of such a selection algorithm is the topic of the present investigation. The following discussion is based on what is known as the Room Theory the original albeit preliminary model proposed by Rumelhart 197M in order to account for his insightful observations. I try to examine the psychological validity of this model and to propose amendments and extensions to it on the basis of empirical data. The Room Theory posits the existence of a psychological room relative to which distances are reckoned. The room corresponds to the smallest geographical region that encompasses both the reference location of the conversants and the location of .