Translating hierarchical instructions into linear text: depth-first versus breadth-first approaches
Hans Hoeken, M. Mom, Alfons Maes · 1994
When performing complex tasks, one has to perform a number of hierarchically related actions. When writing an instructive text for such a task, one has to translate the hierarchical relations into linear text. This translation can follow a breadth-first or a depth-first approach. The breadth-first approach gives all instructions at one level of the hierarchy before giving all instructions at a lower level. The depth-first approach gives all instructions for one branch of the hierarchy before giving instructions for the next branch. A first exploratory study was determined whether people have a breadth-first or a depth-first conceptualisation of the task. The results showed a preference for the depth-first conceptualisation. A second experiment investigated whether the depth-first approach led to a better task performance. However, the results showed that the breadth-first approach yielded a more accurate plan and was appreciated more by users. The implications of these results for models of processing written instructions are discussed.