Vagueness as cost reduction: An empirical test.

Abstract

NLG systems that generate text from numerical data must de- cide between alternative linguistic forms of the given numeri- cal content, such as whether to use a precise or a vague expres- sion. Currently there is little empirical data for these systems to draw on when making these decisions. We performed ex- periments with human readers in which participants responded to instructions in the form of referring expressions, where we manipulated whether the instruction used a vague or a crisp referring expression, in order to test the hypothesis that vague- ness reduces processing costs for the comprehender. Results indicate that people respond more quickly and accurately to vague linguistic expressions than to crisp numerical expres- sions, but that this benefit also accrues to precise terms that avoid numbers.