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I'm having a little trouble buying into something in a technical writing textbook.
The book is being used in a course on applied psychology in technical
communication, its focus being the area of 'human factors'. In the second
chapter, the author describes a number of perceptual mechanisms such as
perceptual set, figure-ground relationships, laws of grouping, goodness of
figures, etc., and a number of perceptual illusions such as Poggendorff
Effect, Ponzo Illusion, and Muller-Lyer Illusion.
While I trust that these could be relevant to the graphic elements of
technical communications (I don't have a background in graphic arts), I'm a
little suspicious about the generalizations that the author appears to be
making to the domain of language (I do have a background in language teaching,
and hence some grounding in linguistics), especially as they are not supported
by concrete examples.
Can anyone point me to some literature that bridges the gap between the two?
You can reply privately, and I can summarize for the list.
Thanks in advance.
Milan Davidovic <davidovm -at- pathcom -dot- com>
Toronto
