In this paper, an attempt is made to automatically identify the activity a meeting is in. The input used in this identification is the frequency of each possible conversational state, and the frequency with which each speakers speaks. A number of classifiers were created and trained, and they performed very well when it was known in advance when an meeting switched activities. The performance, ...

A new technique for integrating experimental manipulations into text-based, synchronous dialogue is introduced. This method supports fine-grained, systematic transformation of conversational turns and the introduction of ‘artificial’ probe turns and turn sequences. It can be used to introduce manipulations that are sensitive to aspects of the local linguistic and conversational context for any ...

This paper reports an empirical exploration of how different configurations of collaboration technology affect peoples’ ability to construct and maintain common ground while conducting collaborative intelligence analysis work. Prior studies of collaboration technology have typically focused on simpler conversational tasks, or ones that involve physical manipulation, rather than the complex sens...

Uncertainty plays a central role in the handling of misunderstanding in dialog. People engaged in conversation typically take a sequence of actions to establish and maintain mutual understanding—a process referred to as grounding. We explore representations and control strategies for grounding utterances founded on performing explicit probabilistic inference about failures in communication. The...

Meaningful language use rests on the grounding of the language in the nonlinguistic world and in the practices of language users. This grounding is built up and maintained in interaction, through Conversational Grounding, which is the interactive process with which interlocutors build mutual understanding; Justification, the ability to explain and provide reasons for one’s language use; and Ada...

When people have a face-to-face conversation, they don't just spout information blindly-they work to make sure that both participants understand what has been said. This process of ensuring that what has been said is added to the common ground of the conversation is called grounding. This thesis explores recent research into the verbal and nonverbal means for grounding, and presents an implemen...

Research on dialogue deals with the study of language as it is used in conversation. Dialogue is a multi-agent activity and this makes conversational language markedly different from the kind of language found in texts. This chapter introduces the main phenomena that characterise language in dialogue interaction — including disfluencies, dialogue acts, alignment, grounding, and turn-taking — an...

This thesis is concerned with intelligent tutoring systems with natural language interfaces, which combine research from the fields of dialogue modelling and pedagogical science. Their development is motivated by the discovery that the learning gains achieved by human one-on-one tutoring are much higher than those achieved by traditional classroom instruction. The mechanisms which have been pro...

Natural language dialogue between multiple participants requires conversational grounding, a process whereby interlocutors achieve a shared understanding. However, the mechanisms involved in the grounding process are under dispute. Two prominent models of dialogue between multiple participants are: interactive alignment, a simpler model that relies on automatic priming processes within individu...

We present a game-theoretic model that formalizes core ideas of conversational grounding theory. This gametheoretic model is based on the concept of signaling games, originally proposed as a model of linguistic convention. We extend signaling games with an observation model, which allows for the possibility that the actions a dialog participant takes may only be partially observable to others. ...