The Virtual Atoll Task: a spatial language elicitation tool
Jonathon Lum, Jonathan Schlossberg · Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) · 2014
This paper describes and evaluates the Virtual Atoll Task (VAT), a new elicitation tool for research on spatiallanguage. The task, which elicits spatial descriptions asparticipants direct each other through a simulated landscape,provides a more realistic, first-person perspective in comparison with previous tabletop space games (e.g., Levinson et al. 1992;Senft 1994; Wilkins 1993), and aims to prompt large scale spatialdescriptions that may be uncommon in tabletop space. Wediscuss the methodology of the task then comment on itsstrengths and limitations as an elicitation tool, reporting on pilotstudies in Jaluit Atoll (Marshall Islands) and Laamu Atoll(Maldives). We conclude by discussing the potential for the VATto be modified for use in other topographic environments, as well as for the task to be employed for the investigation of otherdomains