I Know What You Know: Assumptions About Others' Knowledge and Their Effects on Message Construction

Abstract

Current models of interpersonal communication assume that estimation of listener's knowledge is a basis for message formulation. By introducing methodological modifications to the Fussell and Krauss (1992) paradigm, the present study provided more definitive evidence for the use of knowledge estimation in message productions. In the first experiment, participants indicated whether they knew each of 30 landmarks (thus providing the actual distribution of knowledge) and estimated the proportion of students who would know them. Participants' estimation of the relative distribution of knowledge corresponded impressively with the actual distribution. In the second experiment, a different group of participants described each of the landmarks to an intended audience. The length of the descriptions and the frequency of naming a landmark were predicted by the estimated identifiability from Experiment 1. These results replicated previous findings in a different culture and addressed unresolved issues related to the role of knowledge estimation in communication.