Recent work suggests that variation in online language production reflects the fact that speech is information-theoretically efficient for communication. We apply this idea to studying the offline, structural properties of language, asking whether lexical properties may similarly reflect communicative pressures. We present evidence for the Communicative Lexicon Hypothesis (CLH): human lexical s...

Gestures are an integral part of speaking. They allow expression of thoughts that are difficult to articulate. They promote fluency of speech. Can gestures also facilitate reasoning, problem solving, and other cognitive processes? In the present task, people assembled an object and then made a video explaining how to assemble, using speech and gesture or gesture alone. A control group merely re...

While intentions are at the center of communication theories such as Relevance Theory, and also of theories of action in general, the interaction between communicative and non-communicative intentions has not been much investigated within the relevance-theoretic framework. This paper discusses Bratman’s (1987) Theory of Planning, which recognizes the critical role of intentions in governing our...

We present a way to mix the lower control of agents with the high level specifications of their goals. This paper addresses various topics required to animate virtual humans in a distributed way such as combining primary actions into tasks, using verbal communication between virtual humans and directing them with high level orders. Our models have been tested into a multi-languages / multi-modu...