Staffan Larsson

Information state and dialogue management in the TRINDI dialogue move engine toolkit

We introduce an architecture and toolkit for building dialogue managers currently being developed in the TRINDI project, based on the notions of information state and dialogue move engine. The aim is to provide a framework for experimenting with implementations of different theories of information state, information state update and dialogue control. A number of dialogue managers are currently being built using the toolkit, and we present overviews of two of them. We believe that this framework will make implementation of dialogue processing theories easier, also facilitating comparison of different types of dialogue systems, thus helping to achieve a prerequisite for arriving at a best practice for the development of the dialogue management component of a spoken dialogue system.

The Information State Approach to Dialogue Management

We introduce the information state approach to dialogue management, and show how it can be used to formalize theories of dialogue in a manner suitable for easy implementation. We also show how this approach can lead to better engineering of dialogue management components of dialogue systems, allowing for separate development of modular system fundamentals, dialogue theories, and domain-specific dialogue systems, in a manner where components can more easily be reused. TrindiKit is a tool instantiating the lowest level, and allowing straightforward implementation of dialogue theories formalized using the information state approach. We briefly describe several dialogue systems built using TrindiKit, and how components have been successfully further developed and reused in other projects.

A pluralist view of generalization in qualitative research

A common way of discussing generalisation is to search for one conception – a monist view. Another approach is to create a dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative research, each having a single definition – a dualist perspective. A pluralist view is argued for here, i.e. the existence of several lines of reasoning, each of which can be evaluated in specific cases in terms of usefulness, strengths and weaknesses. Five different lines of reasoning about generalization, which could possibly be useful in qualitative research, are presented. They are: ‘studies that undermine established universal “truths”’, ‘the ideographic study’, ‘enhancing the generalisation potential by maximizing variation’, ‘generalisation through context similarity’ and ‘generalisation through recognition of patterns.’ Each is critically commented on.

GoDiS: an accommodating dialogue system

This paper accompanies a demo of the GoDiS system. Work on this system was reported at IJCAI-99 (Bohlin et al., 1999). GoDiS is a prototype dialogue system for information-seeking dialogue, capable of accommodating questions and tasks to enable the user to present information in any desired order, without explicitly naming the dialogue task. GoDiS is implemented using the TRINDIKIT software package, which enables implementation of these behaviours in a compact and natural way.

Ethnography in action. How ethnography was established in Swedish educational research

The emergence of new research practices is the general theme in this text. The case is ethnography as an approach in Swedish educational research. Ethnography is now an established approach in educational research in Sweden. What was the process behind this position? The article will follow a trajectory that starts in the 1960s and discuss how ethnography was established and consolidated in educational research in Sweden. The article discerns five phases of formation, starting in the late 1960s through to today. The unilateral relation to Anglo-American ethnographic networks is discussed. An actor network metaphor is used as a tool in the interpretation of the process. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the knowledge of ethnographic research as well as the process of change in research practices generally.

Seven aspects of democracy as related to study circles

It is estimated that between 1.2–1.6 million Swedes take part each year in various study circles. These are considered to be significant for democracy. The empirical evidence for this claim is scrutinized in this text. The theoretical basis for the interpretation is meanings given to the concept of democracy in the discourse on democracy. Seven qualitatively different aspects of democracy are thus highlighted: equal participation, horizontal relations, deliberations, knowledge that informs standpoints, recognition of diverse identities, internal democratic decision-making, and action to form society. It is argued that the seven aspects can be looked upon as a chain, since they, to some extent, focus on different phases in a democratic process.

Formal semantics for perceptual classification

A formal semantics for low-level perceptual aspects of meaning is presented, tying these together with the logical-inferential aspects of meaning traditionally studied in formal semantics. The key idea is to model perceptual meanings as classifiers of perceptual input. Furthermore, we show how perceptual aspects of meaning can be updated as a result of observing language use in interaction, thereby enabling fine-grained semantic plasticity and semantic coordination. This requires a framework where intensions are (i) represented independently of extensions, and (ii) structured objects which can be modified as a result of learning. We use Type Theory with Records (TTR), a formal semantics framework that starts from the idea that information and meaning is founded on our ability to perceive and classify the world, i.e. to perceive objects and situations as being of types. As an example of our approach, we show how a simple classifier of spatial information based on the Perceptron can be

‘I have my own picture of what the demands are ... ’: Grading in Swedish PEH — problems of validity, comparability and fairness

The main purpose of this study is to focus on Swedish PE teachers’ experiences with a criterion-referenced grading system and its practical consequences. It aims specifically at investigating the dimensionality of grades and how teacher reason and effectuate when grading students. The study consists of two parts: quantitative data collection of grades in PE given between 2000 and 2009 and 20 semi-structured interviews with PE teachers that were analyzed qualitatively. The study has shown that the principles of fair and equitable grading in Swedish PE should be strongly questioned due to lack of transparency, validity and reliability. Grading in Swedish PE seems to be arbitrary and the grading system is not accessible or transparent to the students.

Confronting Globalisation: Learning from Intercontinental Collaboration

Higher education institutions are responding to globalisation in various ways. This study describes and analyses challenges encountered in a recent case of global collaboration between four universities on different continents in developing a web‐based master’s program. The key issue was how to develop programs in a way that is fair for the different countries involved. The focus of the paper is on tensions between local and national contexts, rules and resources and the creation of a common global program. ‘Agency’, ‘structure’ and ‘frame factor’ are used as analytical concepts to help understand the dynamics of the collaboration and the character of the program.

Modelling Language, Action, and Perception in Type Theory with Records

Formal models of natural language semantics using TTR Type Theory with Records attempt to relate natural language to perception, modelled as classification of objects and events by types which are available as resources to an agent. We argue that this is better suited for representing the meaning of spatial descriptions in the context of agent modelling than traditional formal semantic models which do not relate spatial concepts to perceptual apparatus. Spatial descriptions include perceptual, conceptual and discourse knowledge which we represent all in a single framework. Being a general framework for modelling both linguistic and non-linguistic cognition, TTR is more suitable for the modelling of situated conversational agents in robotics and virtual environments where interoperability between language, action and perception is required. The perceptual systems gain access to abstract conceptual meaning representations of language while the latter can be justified in action and perception.