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To simplify information is to achieve cognitive economy. Language organises things in hierarchies, from the general to the specific. In cognitive terms, the middle (basic) level is the easiest to understand.
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To simplify information is to achieve cognitive economy. Language organises things in hierarchies, from the general to the specific. In cognitive terms, the middle (basic) level is the easiest to understand.
Eleanor Rosch’s Principles of Categorisation1 include three levels:
We don’t ask permission to bring our mammal into a building. We say ‘is it OK to bring my dog in?’.
We know that children learn basic level language first, and experiments have shown that we organise most of our knowledge around basic level concepts. In perception tests, people recognise basic level terms more quickly and accurately. One reason might be the link between basic level language and visualisation. We can all have a single mental image of a dog, based on typical dogs we’ve met, but we can only visualise a dachshund if we know what it is. We cannot have a visual image of a ‘mammal’.
There is an implication for icon design. ‘No dogs’ signs, for example, usually use a generic dog – a prototype dog, we might say – which doesn’t look like a distinctive breed.
Plain language writing should make as much use of basic language as possible – this means being wary both of abstract language at the superordinate level, and of jargon at the subordinate level.
1. Rosch, Eleanor (1988), ‘Principles of Categorization’, Readings in Cognitive Science, Elsevier, pp. 312–322.