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From: benson@dcdwest.uucp (Peter Benson)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Aural Comprehension
Message-ID: <1991Feb24.001957.5721@dcdwest.uucp>
Date: 24 Feb 91 00:19:57 GMT
Organization: ITT Defense Communications Division - West
Lines: 31

I have a project wherein I am trying to quantify how well people can
get the gist of something they are listening to.  I believe without any
evidence as yet that psychologist must have studied this problem
already and know the right way to measure this, yet I am having
difficulty finding tghe articles or working scholars who are studying
this.  I am hoping someone who reads this news group can give me some
hints.

Gisting is a specialized activity.  It's listening to a set of spoken
interchanges and understanding what's going on.  The example I like to
use is of a local police force.  In such a force, there would be a
small set of officers who work rotating shifts.  They are sent out on
patrols that cover a proscribed area in which there are a set of
typical things that go on.  Occasionally, there will be a break-in or
an accident, but much of what they do is routine.  A person listening
to the radio traffic would quickly learn the routine and would
summarize an officer's shift by relating his name, the times, a general
description of what happened and, perhaps, some more details about the
accidents, say.

My interest is in quantifying how well the gister does this.  It seems
to me that this is a general example of spoken language comprehension.
While I can find many examples of text comprehension research,
listening comprehension is much less represented.  Any
suggestions may be mailed to me at the e-mail address below.

-- 
Peter Benson, Ph.D.             | ITT Aerospace/Communications Division
phone: (619)578-3080            | 10060 Carroll Canyon Road
fax:   (619)578-5371            | San Diego, CA 92131
email: dcdwest!benson@UCSD.EDU  |


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