Christine Ros

Eye and pen: A new device for studying reading during writing.

We present a new method for studying reading during writing and the relationships between these two activities. The Eye and Pen device makes a synchronous recording of handwriting and eye movements during written composition. It complements existing online methods by providing a fine-grained description of the visual information fixated during pauses as well as during the actual writing act. This device can contribute to the exploration of several research issues, since it can be used to investigate the role of the text produced so far and the documentary sources displayed in the task environment. The study of the engagement of reading during writing should provide important information about the dynamics of writing processes based on visual information.

Explicit feedback from users attenuates memory biases in human-system dialogue

In human–human dialogue, the way in which a piece of information is added to the partners’ common ground (i.e., presented and accepted) constitutes an important determinant of subsequent dialogue memory. The aim of this study was to determine whether this is also the case in human-system dialogue. An experiment was conducted in which naive participants and a simulated dialogue system took turns to present references to various landmarks featured on a list. The kind of feedback used to accept these references (verbatim repetition vs. implicit acceptance) was manipulated. The participants then performed a recognition test during which they attempted to identify the references mentioned previously. Self-presented references were recognised better than references presented by the system; however, such presentation bias was attenuated when the initial presentation of these references was followed by verbatim repetition. Implications for the design of automated dialogue systems are discussed.

Generating References in Naturalistic Face-to-Face and Phone-Mediated Dialog Settings

During dialog, references are presented, accepted, and potentially reused (depending on their accessibility in memory). Two experiments were conducted to examine reuse in a naturalistic setting (a walk in a familiar environment). In Experiment 1, where the participants interacted face to face, self-presented references and references accepted through verbatim repetition were reused more. Such biases persisted after the end of the interaction. In Experiment 2, where the participants interacted over the phone, reference reuse mainly depended on whether the participant could see the landmarks being referred to, although this bias seemed to be only transient. Consistent with the memory-based approach to dialog, these results shed light on how differences in accessibility in memory (due to how these references were initially added to the common ground or the media used) affect the unfolding of the interaction.

Investigating memory constraints on recall of options in interactive voice response system messages

This study examined the effects of the number of options in a message and different message endings on the memorisation of multiple-option messages. Twenty-seven participants were told to pay attention to the quality of interactions between users and an interactive voice response system and were asked to recall system messages. The multiple-option messages contained three, five or seven options and ended either in a pseudoword suffix, in a natural-language prompt or in a beep. Results showed that option recall was impaired when messages were longer and contained a suffix. The interaction between the number of options and the presence of a suffix was not significant. Results also showed that, in messages with five or more options, the recency effect was greater than the primacy effect. These results bolster our knowledge about the design of spoken menus.

Spoilt for choice: initially considering several referential expressions affects subsequent referential decisions

ABSTRACT In dialogue, speakers jointly decide how to refer to the referents under discussion. In some cases, several different referential expressions are considered before the partners can decide which one they prefer; this work examined how doing so affects subsequent referential expression reuse. Pairs of participants came up with suitable referential expressions for Tangram figures they were shown. They then referred to the same figures again during a matching task which was performed either with the same partner or a different partner. The main finding was that the preferred referential expression was less likely to be reused when several referential expressions were initially considered. This effect could not be attributed to a generation effect or to some referential expressions being a better match for the Tangram figures than others. These findings offer a better understanding of how the initial contribution of a reference shapes subsequent referential decisions through ordinary memory functioning.

Children's Visual Scanning of Textual Documents: Effects of Document Organization, Search Goals, and Metatextual Knowledge.

ABSTRACT This study examines children’s strategies when scanning a document to answer a specific question. More specifically, we wanted to know whether they make use of organizers (i.e., headings) when searching and whether strategic search is related to their knowledge of reading strategies. Twenty-six French fifth graders were asked to search single-page documents presented on the screen of an eye tracker in order to respond to questions requiring the location of information in either a single paragraph (Location questions) or multiple paragraphs (Comparison questions). Location questions were easier and faster to answer than Comparison questions. The presence of headers led to more selective reading strategies but did not significantly speed up the search. Strong individual differences were observed in children’s scanning strategies: Some systematically fixated headers, whereas others did not. These differences were not significantly related to the participants’ decoding or comprehension skills but rather to their knowledge of reading strategies.

Reducing user linguistic variability in speech interaction through lexical and syntactic priming

Motivation -- To reduce user linguistic variability in human-system interaction. Research approach -- An experiment was conducted in which 72 participants interacted over the phone with a simulated natural language dialogue system. The main manipulation concerned the lexical content and the structure of the message prompts. Findings/Design -- The results confirm that users align with the system on the lexical and structural levels in human-system dialogue. However, the strength of the syntactic alignment depends on the content of the prime. Research limitations/Implications -- This experiment should be replicated user a greater number of different prime system messages. Originality/Value -- By manipulating prime content, this study allows investigating alignment strength as a function of word frequency and user preferences. Take-away message -- Lexical and syntactic priming can be used to reduce user linguistic variability in human-system interaction, but the strength of these phenomena depends on the content of the prime.

Relevance versus big numbers: Students’ criteria for selecting scholarly references online.

This study examined the effect of the number of citations attributed to documents on third year psychology students’ selection of bibliographical references. Our main assumption was that students would take high numbers of citations as accessible relevance cues and use them heuristically to facilitate decision making, potentially bypassing deeper relevance assessment based on semantic processing. Experiment 1 presented the students with a reference selection task while manipulating the number of citations attributed to references, and found that the number of citations had a strong impact on reference selection. Moreover, the effect was independent from topic familiarity and even from students’ prior knowledge of what the number of citations meant. Experiment 2 used eye-tracking data to show that this “big number” effect was contingent upon the participants fixating the numbers of citations attributed to documents. Experiment 3 manipulated the semantic relevance of references to the search topic, and demonstrated that the less relevant references were 3 times more likely to be selected when they came with a high number of citations. Overall, the study shows that the number of citations significantly influences students’ selections, competing with the semantic relevance of references. Implications for the teaching of online search skills are discussed.

Readers’ Selective Recall of Source Features as a Function of Claim Discrepancy and Task Demands

ABSTRACT In two experiments, undergraduate students read short texts containing two embedded sources that could either agree or disagree with each other. Participants’ memory for the sources’ identity (i.e., occupation) and features (i.e., the source’s access to knowledge and the source’s physical appearance) was examined as a function of the consistency of their assertions. In Experiment 1 (n = 64), sources were described with only one feature (knowledge or appearance), whereas in Experiment 2 (n = 62), each source was described with both features. Experiment 1 additionally tested the influence of two different tasks during reading (an evaluation of sources’ knowledgeability vs. an evaluation of sources’ age). Consistent with our predictions, knowledge evaluations (Experiment 1) and discrepant claims (Experiments 1 and 2) enhanced memory for sources and their features. Experiment 2 also showed that when both types of features were available, discrepant claims selectively benefited memory for a source’s knowledgeability over appearance.