Communicating Quantities: A Psychological Perspective

Every day, in many situations, we use expressions which seem to provide us with only vague information. The weather forecaster tells us that "some showers are likely in Northern regions during the night", a statement which is vague with respect to number of showers, location, and time. Yet such messages are informative, and often it is not possible for the producer of the message to be more precise. A tutor tells his students that "only a few students fail their exams outright". This does n...