Pictorial and Verbal Tools for Conveying Routes

Traditionally, depictions and descriptions have been seen as complementary; depictions have been preferred to convey iconic or metaphorically iconic information whereas descriptions have been preferred for abstract information. Both are external representations designed to complement human memory and information processing. We have found the same underlying structure and semantics for route maps and route directions. Here we find that limited schematic map and direction toolkits are sufficient for constructing directions, supporting the possibility of automatic translation between them.