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HC1 10-11
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Outcomes
A number of communication phenomena will be considered in this course.
Each will be used to introduce various issues in communication, from
the perspective of the various disciplines. These disciplines will
include Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Linguistics,
Computational Linguistics, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology and
Philosophy. Examples will be presented that illustrate:
- the role of ambiguity in communication
- difficulties and breakdowns in human communication
- the relationship between theories and
computational models of communication
- methodologies used in conducting research into
human communication
- approaches to collecting data in relation to
communication phenomena and methods of analysing such data
- methods used in developing communication technology
Examples of the phenomena that may be considered and some of the
related issues include:
- Humour: the role of ambiguity in humour; violation
of listener’s expectations; the range of language knowledge required to
generate and understand jokes.
- Poetry: the role of metaphor and cognition in
poetry generation and understanding; whether we can analyse the
aesthetics of poems.
- Telling untruths: models of language and
evaluation of truth; messages in the media and evaluating evidence for
them; impact of communication based on incomplete evidence (e.g.
stereotyping, propaganda).
- Written versus spoken communication: ‘texting’ as
a form of communication; accommodation in speech and writing.
- Communication and searching on the WWW and in
corpora
- Accessibility: understanding communication
difficulties; impact of limiting means and form of communication, and
possible means of improving access and support.
- Tutorial dialogue: analysing and annotating speech
acts; interacting in groups; affect in communication.
- Language differences: individual differences,
styles and personality; slang, group and private languages;
second language learning.
- Non-verbal communication: gestures and
communication; attention and eye gaze.
Existing tools, in particular those in use in research in Edinburgh
(and through collaborators elsewhere), may be used to illustrate
various issues and to provide hands- on experience for students in this
course, for example:
• annotation tools such as those developed locally;
• video-revision through YouTute;
• the Standup joke generation system;
• interactions (e.g. a tutorial) through agents in
Second Life.
Helen Pain
8/Jan/11
