research-article

"Thank You for Sharing that Interesting Fact!": Effects of Capability and Context on Indirect Speech Act Use in Task-Based Human-Robot Dialogue

Authors:

Julia Novakoff,

Matthias ScheutzAuthors Info & Claims

HRI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

Pages 298 - 306

https://doi.org/10.1145/3171221.3171246

Published: 26 February 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Naturally interacting robots must be able to understand natural human speech. As such, recent work has sought to allow robots to infer the intentions behind commonly used non-literal utterances such as indirect speech acts (ISAs). However, it is still unclear to what extent ISAs will actually be used in task-based human-robot dialogue, and to what extent robots could function without the ability to understand ISAs. In this paper, we present the results of a Wizard-of-Oz experiment that examined human ISA use in scenarios that did or did not have conventionalized social norms, and analyzed both ISA use and perceptions of robots when robots were or were not capable of understanding ISAs. Our results suggest that (1) ISAs are commonly used in task-based human-robot dialogues, even when robots show themselves unable to understand ISAs; (2) ISA use is more common in contexts with conventionalized social norms; and (3) a robot's inability to understand ISAs harms both the robot's task performance and human perception of the robot.

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Index Terms

"Thank You for Sharing that Interesting Fact!": Effects of Capability and Context on Indirect Speech Act Use in Task-Based Human-Robot Dialogue
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Artificial intelligence
    1. Natural language processing
      1. Discourse, dialogue and pragmatics
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods
      1. Laboratory experiments
      2. User studies
    2. Interaction paradigms
      1. Natural language interfaces

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cover image ACM Conferences

HRI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

February 2018

468 pages

ISBN:9781450349536

DOI:10.1145/3171221

General Chairs:
Takayuki Kanda
ATR, Japan
,
Selma Ŝabanović
Indiana University Bloomington, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Guy Hoffman
Cornell University, USA
,
Adriana Tapus
ENSTA-ParisTech, France

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

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New York, NY, United States

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Published: 26 February 2018

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US Office of Naval Research

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HRI '18

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HRI '18: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

March 5 - 8, 2018

IL, Chicago, USA

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HRI '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 49 of 206 submissions, 24%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 268 of 1,124 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.3390/fi17020052
Ren YClement J(2024)Augmenting Human Teams with Robots in Knowledge Work Settings: Insights from the LiteratureACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/364988413:2(1-34)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649884
Han ZZhu YPhan AGarza FCastro AWilliams TCastellano GRiek LCakmak MLeite I(2023)Crossing Reality: Comparing Physical and Virtual Robot DeixisProceedings of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/3568162.3576972(152-161)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3568162.3576972
Wen RHanson AHan ZWilliams TCastellano GRiek LCakmak MLeite I(2023)Fresh StartProceedings of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/3568162.3576959(112-121)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3568162.3576959
Brown LHamilton JHan ZPhan APhung THansen ETran NWilliams T(2023)Best of Both Worlds? Combining Different Forms of Mixed Reality Deictic GesturesACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/356338712:1(1-23)Online publication date: 15-Feb-2023
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Trott SReed SKaliblotzky DFerreira VBergen B(2022)The Role of Prosody in Disambiguating English Indirect RequestsLanguage and Speech10.1177/0023830922108771566:1(118-142)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2022
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Wen RBarton BFauré SWilliams T(2022)Unpretty Please: Ostensibly Polite Wakewords Discourage Politeness in both Robot-Directed and Human-Directed CommunicationProceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Multimodal Interaction10.1145/3536221.3556615(181-190)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2022
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Jackson RWilliams T(2022)Enabling Morally Sensitive Robotic Clarification RequestsACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/350379511:2(1-18)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2022
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Scheutz MThielstrom RAbrams M(2022)Transparency through Explanations and Justifications in Human-Robot Task-Based CommunicationsInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2022.209108638:18-20(1739-1752)Online publication date: 27-Jul-2022
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