| The degree to which speakers model their listeners is debatable. This study contributes to the quickly accumulating body of literature assessing speaker/listener collaboration by manipulating speakers' perspectives in relation to their a priori perceptions of their audiences. Speakers addressed a particular cultural audience (in monologue or dialogue conditions), providing descriptions to help their intended listeners select ambiguous images from a set. These texts were then given to the speakers' intended or unintended audiences to determine the descriptive efficacy and design specificity of the monologues and dialogues. According to some accounts of perspective taking, the manipulation of speakers' perspectives should not have affected their descriptions (assuming they were fully considering their listeners' perspectives). In contrast, if they were considering their listeners' perspectives, the manipulation of beliefs about their partners should have shown a significant difference. |
