Risk-taking and recovery in task-oriented dialogue
The Principle of Parsimony states that by and large, agents try to complete tasks using as little effort as possible. This thesis demonstrates that the Principle of Parsimony operates in human task-oriented dialogue by showing the effects of Parsimony in a corpus of human dialogues about a map navigation task and by using the main points of the analysis in order to guide simulated conversations between two computer agents within the JAM system. It makes four major contributions: an analysis of 'communicative posture', or a range of choices in dialogue which can be characterised by decisions about how much effort to spend constructing one's utterances, leading to either careful or risky behaviour about different aspects of communication, an analysis of 'recovery strategies' which allow the participants to recover from failures which have been brought about due to risky postures, a heuristic model of belief which risks failing to capture the full meaning of the dialogue in favour of efficiency in a way which models human belief updating more plausibly than previous models, and a layered agent architecture which allows the simulated agents to make all of their decisions based on the Principle of Parsimony.
Carletta, Jean
Risk-taking and recovery in task-oriented dialogue. The Principle of Parsimony states that by and large, agents try to complete tasks using as little effort as possible. This thesis demonstrates that the Principle of Parsimony operates in human task-oriented dialogue by showing the effects of Parsimony in a corpus of human dialogues about a map navigation task and by using the main points of the analysis in order to guide simulated conversations between two computer agents within the JAM system. It makes four major contributions: an analysis of 'communicative posture', or a range of choices in dialogue which can be characterised by decisions about how much effort to spend constructing one's utterances, leading to either careful or risky behaviour about different aspects of communication, an analysis of 'recovery strategies' which allow the participants to recover from failures which have been brought about due to risky postures, a heuristic model of belief which risks failing to capture the full meaning of the dialogue in favour of efficiency in a way which models human belief updating more plausibly than previous models, and a layered agent architecture which allows the simulated agents to make all of their decisions based on the Principle of Parsimony.
risk taking recovery task_oriented dialogue principle parsimony state large agent try complete task use little effort possible demonstrates principle parsimony operate human task_oriented dialogue show effect parsimony corpus human dialogue map navigation task use main_point analysis order guide simulate conversation computer agent within system make four_major contribution analysis communicative posture range choice dialogue characterise decision much effort spend construct utterance lead either careful behaviour different_aspect communication analysis recovery strategy allow participant recover failure bring due posture heuristic model belief risk fail_capture full meaning dialogue favour efficiency way model human belief update plausibly previous model layer agent architecture allow agent make_decision base principle parsimony