benson@dcdwest.uucp (Peter Benson) (02/24/91)
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 |