Relevance in Spatial Navigation and Communication

Humans are incapable of reproducing exact "copies" of reality when conceptualizing and communicating about space. Instead, those aspects of a spatial environment are represented that are relevant for a particular purpose. This paper addresses how cognition and communication of space are affected by relevance. It starts out with a review of a broad range of evidence from theories and empirical findings on relevance in perception and communication, before turning more specifically to the role of relevance in navigation and description strategies.

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