Patrick G. T. Healey

On the means for clarification in dialogue

The ability to request clarification of utterances is a vital part of the communicative process. In this paper we discuss the range of possible forms for clarification requests, together with the range of readings they can convey. We present the results of corpus analysis which show a correlation between certain forms and possible readings, together with some indication of maximum likely distance between request and the utterance being clarified. We then explain the implications of these results for a possible HPSG analysis of clarification requests and for an ongoing implementation of a clarification-capable dialogue system.1

Is Nonverbal Communication Disrupted in Interactions Involving Patients With Schizophrenia

Background: Nonverbal communication is a critical feature of successful social interaction and interpersonal rapport. Social exclusion is a feature of schizophrenia. This experimental study investigated if the undisclosed presence of a patient with schizophrenia in interaction changes nonverbal communication (ie, speaker gesture and listener nodding). Method: 3D motion-capture techniques recorded 20 patient (1 patient, 2 healthy participants) and 20 control (3 healthy participants) interactions. Participants rated their experience of rapport with each interacting partner. Patients’ symptoms, social cognition, and executive functioning were assessed. Four hypotheses were tested: (1) Compared to controls, patients display less speaking gestures and listener nods. (2) Patients’ increased symptom severity and poorer social cognition are associated with patients’ reduced gesture and nods. (3) Patients’ partners compensate for patients’ reduced nonverbal behavior by gesturing more when speaking and nodding more when listening. (4) Patients’ reduced nonverbal behavior, increased symptom severity, and poorer social cognition are associated with others experiencing poorer rapport with the patient. Results: Patients gestured less when speaking. Patients with more negative symptoms nodded less as listeners, while their partners appeared to compensate by gesturing more as speakers. Patients with more negative symptoms also gestured more when speaking, which, alongside increased negative symptoms and poorer social cognition, was associated with others experiencing poorer patient rapport. Conclusions: Patients’ symptoms are associated with the nonverbal behavior of patients and their partners. Patients’ increased negative symptoms and gesture use are associated with poorer interpersonal rapport. This study provides specific evidence about how negative symptoms impact patients’ social interactions.

Graphical Language Games: Interactional Constraints on Representational Form

The emergence of shared symbol systems is considered to be a pivotal moment in human evolution and human development. These changes are normally explained by reference to changes in peoples internal cognitive processes. We present 2 experiments which provide evidence that changes in the external, collaborative processes that people use to communicate can also affect the structure and organization of symbol systems independently of cognitive change. We propose that mutual-modifiability-opportunities for people to edit or manipulate each others contributions-is a key constraint on the emergence of complex symbol systems. We discuss the implications for models of language development and the origins of compositionality.

Divergence in dialogue.

One of the best known claims about human communication is that peoples behaviour and language use converge during conversation. It has been proposed that these patterns can be explained by automatic, cross-person priming. A key test case is structural priming: does exposure to one syntactic structure, in production or comprehension, make reuse of that structure (by the same or another speaker) more likely? It has been claimed that syntactic repetition caused by structural priming is ubiquitous in conversation. However, previous work has not tested for general syntactic repetition effects in ordinary conversation independently of lexical repetition. Here we analyse patterns of syntactic repetition in two large corpora of unscripted everyday conversations. Our results show that when lexical repetition is taken into account there is no general tendency for people to repeat their own syntactic constructions. More importantly, people repeat each others syntactic constructions less than would be expected by chance; i.e., people systematically diverge from one another in their use of syntactic constructions. We conclude that in ordinary conversation the structural priming effects described in the literature are overwhelmed by the need to actively engage with our conversational partners and respond productively to what they say.

Customized television: standards compliant advanced digital television

This paper describes a European Union supported collaborative project called CustomTV based on the premise that future TV sets will provide all sorts of multimedia information and interactivity, as well as manage all such services according to each users or group of users preferences/profiles. We have demonstrated the potential of recent standards (MPEG-4 and MPEG-7) to implement such a scenario by building the following services: an advanced EPG, weather forecasting, and stock exchange/flight information.

Graphical representation in graphical dialogue

Abstract This paper explores the influence of communicative interaction on the form of graphical representations. A referential communication task is described which involves exclusively graphical dialogue. In this task subjects communicate about pieces of music by drawing. The drawings produced fall into two basic types: Abstract and Figurative. Three hypotheses are developed about the factors influencing the use of these drawing types: efficiency of production, suitability for the task and level of communicative interaction. Experimental evidence is presented which indicates that the drawing types do not differ in the amount of effort required to produce them. The results indicate that (1) Abstract drawings are more effective than Figurative drawings for comparative tasks and (2) a key constraint on their use is level of direct communicative interaction. It is argued that these observations result from differences in the underlying semantic models of music associated with the drawing types and the consequences these differences have for communicative coordination.

Communication Spaces

Concepts of space are fundamental to our understanding of human action and interaction. The common sense concept of uniform, metric, physical space is inadequate for design. It fails to capture features of social norms and practices that can be critical to the success of a technology. The concept of ‘place’ addresses these limitations by taking account of the different ways a space may be understood and used. This paper argues for the importance of a third concept: communication space. Motivated by Heidegger’s discussion of ‘being-with’ this concept addresses differences in interpersonal ‘closeness’ or mutual-involvement that are a constitutive feature of human interaction. We apply the concepts of space, place and communication space to the analysis of a corpus of interactions from an online community, ‘Walford’, which has a rich communicative ecology. A novel measure of sequential integration of conversational turns is proposed as an index of mutal-involvement. We demonstrate systematic differences in mutual-involvement that cannot be accounted for in terms of space or place and conclude that a concept of communication space is needed to address the organisation of human encounters in this community.

Geezers, turbines, fantasy personas: making the everyday into the future

This paper describes how a project to challenge digital exclusion resulted in GeezerPower: an artwork that is both a statement about reusable technologies and about older peoples continuing interest in the world of the future. We use the story of its production to illustrate and reflect on new methods for engaging people in decisions about the design of technology. And we explore how creative practice informed the design of an intervention workshop inspired by performance art and an exhibition of artists collaborating with older people. We conclude with some comments on marginalization, engagement and envisioning futures.

Nonverbal behavior during face-to-face social interaction in schizophrenia: a review.

Abstract Patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia display social cognitive deficits. However, little is known about patients’ nonverbal communication during their social encounters with others. This review identified 17 studies investigating nonverbal communication in patients’ unscripted face-to-face interactions, addressing a) nonverbal differences between patients and others, b) nonverbal behavior of the patients’ partners, c) the association between nonverbal behavior and symptoms, and d) the association between nonverbal behavior and social outcomes. Patients displayed fewer nonverbal behaviors inviting interaction, with negative symptoms exacerbating this pattern. Positive symptoms were associated with heightened nonverbal behavior. Patients’ partners changed their own nonverbal behavior in response to the patient. Reduced prosocial behaviors, inviting interaction, were associated with poorer social outcomes. The evidence suggests that patients’ nonverbal behavior, during face-to-face interaction, is influenced by patients symptoms and impacts the success of their social interactions.

Semantic negotiation in dialogue: the mechanisms of alignment

A key problem for models of dialogue is to explain how semantic co-ordination in dialogue is achieved and sustained. This paper presents findings from a series of Maze Task experiments which are not readily explained by the primary co-ordination mechanisms of existing models. It demonstrates that alignment in dialogue is not simply an outcome of successful interaction, but a communicative resource exploited by interlocutors in converging on a semantic model. We argue this suggests mechanisms of co-ordination in dialogue which are of relevance for a general account of how semantic co-ordination is achieved.