Angela Nazarian

FLoReS: A Forward Looking, Reward Seeking, Dialogue Manager

We present FLoReS, a new information-state-based dialogue manager, making use of forward inference, local dialogue structure, and plan operators representing subdialogue structure. The aim is to support both advanced, flexible, mixed initiative interaction and efficient policy creation by domain experts. The dialogue manager has been used for two characters in the SimCoach project and is currently being used in several related projects. We present the design of the dialogue manager and preliminary comparative evaluation with a previous system that uses a more conventional state chart dialogue manager.

The cultural influence model: when accented natural language spoken by virtual characters matters

Advances in artificial intelligence and computer graphics digital technologies have contributed to a relative increase in realism in virtual characters. Preserving virtual characters’ communicative realism, in particular, joined the ranks of the improvements in natural language technology, and animation algorithms. This paper focuses on culturally relevant paralinguistic cues in nonverbal communication. We model the effects of an English-speaking digital character with different accents on human interactants (i.e., users). Our cultural influence model proposes that paralinguistic realism, in the form of accented speech, is effective in promoting culturally congruent cognition only when it is self-relevant to users. For example, a Chinese or Middle Eastern English accent may be perceived as foreign to individuals who do not share the same ethnic cultural background with members of those cultures. However, for individuals who are familiar and affiliate with those cultures (i.e., in-group members who are bicultural), accent not only serves as a motif of shared social identity, it also primes them to adopt culturally appropriate interpretive frames that influence their decision making.

The Subtlety of Sound: Accent as a Marker for Culture

Aspects of language, such as accent, play a crucial role in the formation and categorization of one’s cultural identity. Recent work on accent emphasizes the role of accent in person perception and social categorization, demonstrating that accent also serves as a meaningful indicator of an ethnic category. In this article, we investigate whether the accent of an interaction partner, as a marker for culture, can induce cultural frame-shifts in biculturals. We report the results of three experiments, performed among bicultural and monocultural individuals, in which we test the above hypothesis. Our results demonstrate that accent alone can affect people’s cognition.