ROW: Addressing Misunderstandings in Dialogue

阻止人们使用自然语言与计算机交互的最大障碍之一是，即使对人类来说，完全理解语言也是困难的。最近，人们提出了一些理论来解释互动者如何恰当地行为——即使他们对话语的某些部分的意义有所不同。该项目旨在扩展这些想法，以便测试其有效性并将其见解付诸实践。扩展早期的工作包括四个任务：引出和收集例子；理论的扩展;扩展模型在其逻辑框架内的评价；以及支持用户研究的应用程序的构建。规划活动应包括对有关文献的审查；对数据收集和验证的候选方法进行初步实验；与专门研究这些问题的研究人员进行讨论；并构建了两个原型应用程序，分别与医生和患者讨论医疗信息。在完成这些活动后，将拟订一项详细的计划，以扩大消除误解的办法。如果计算机能够解决误解，它们将能够更好地可靠而有力地理解自然语言，如果它们要帮助那些最需要它们的非计算机专家，这是必不可少的。

One of the biggest roadblocks preventing people from using natural language to interact with computers is that understanding language perfectly is difficult, even for people. Recently, theories have been proposed explaining how interactors can behave appropriately---even if they differ about the meaning of some part of the discourse. This project aims to extend these ideas so that their effectiveness can be tested and their insights put to use. Extending earlier work comprises four tasks: elicitation and collection of examples; theoretical extensions; evaluation of the extended model within its logical framework; and the construction of applications supporting a user study. The planning activities are to include a review of the relevant literature; preliminary experimentation with candidate methods of data collection and validation; discussions with researchers whose expertise bears on these issues; and the construction of two prototype applications that discuss medical information with doctors and patients, respectively. Upon completion of these activities, a detailed plan for extending prior a pproaches to misunderstanding will be developed. If computers can be enabled to address misunderstanding, they will be better able to understand natural language reliably and robustly, which is essential if they are to help those who need them most, non-computer-experts.