Guidelines for cooperative dialogue
The two tables below show the 13 generic guidelines (GG) and 11 specific guidelines (SG) for cooperative human-computer dialogue interaction. The generic guidelines are expressed at the same level of generality as are the Gricean maxims (marked with an *) [Grice 1975]. Each specific guideline is subsumed by a generic guideline. The left-hand column characterises the aspect of interaction addressed by each guideline.
The guidelines in the tables represent a first approximation to an operational definition of system cooperativity in task-oriented, shared-goal interaction. Their purpose is that of achieving the shared goal as directly and smoothly as possible. It is exactly when a guideline is violated that miscommunication is likely to occur, which again may seriously damage the user's task performance. Roughly speaking the generic guidelines express what to take into account while the specific guidelines explain how to do it. Since all specific guidelines are subsumed by generic guidelines the user might decide only to use the generic guidelines. This would mean a more coarse-grained and overall characterisation of cooperativity issues, but it would also mean fewer guidelines to remember and to apply.
| Aspect | Generic Guideline |
Paraphrase |
|---|---|---|
| GG1 | *Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange). | |
| GG2 | *Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. | |
(aspect 2) |
GG3 | *Do not say what you believe to be false. |
| GG4 | *Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. | |
(aspect 3) |
GG5 | *Be relevant, i.e. be appropriate to the immediate needs at each stage of the transaction. |
(aspect 4) |
GG6 | *Avoid obscurity of expression. |
| GG7 | *Avoid ambiguity. | |
| GG8 | *Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). | |
| GG9 | *Be orderly. | |
(aspect 5) |
GG10 | Inform the users of important non-normal characteristics which they should take into account in order to behave cooperatively in spoken interaction. Ensure the feasibility of what is required of them. |
(aspect 6) |
GG11 | Take partners' relevant background knowledge into account. |
| GG12 | Take into account legitimate partner expectations as to your own background knowledge. | |
(aspect 7) |
GG13 | Enable repair or clarification meta-communication in case of communication failure. |
| Aspect | Specific Guideline |
Paraphrase |
|---|---|---|
(aspect 1) |
SG1 (GG1) | Be fully explicit in communicating to users the commitments they have made. |
| SG2 (GG1) | Provide feedback on each piece of information provided by the user. | |
(aspect 4) |
SG3 (GG7) | Provide same formulation of the same question (or address) to users everywhere in the system's interaction turns. |
(aspect 5) |
SG4 (GG10) | Provide clear and comprehensible communication of what the system can and cannot do. |
| SG5 (GG10) | Provide clear and sufficient instructions to users on how to interact with the system. | |
(aspect 6) |
SG6 (GG11) | Take into account possible (and possibly erroneous) user inferences by analogy from related task domains. |
| SG7 (GG11) | Separate whenever possible between the needs of novice and expert users (user-adaptive interaction). | |
| SG8 (GG12) | Provide sufficient task domain knowledge and inference. | |
(aspect 7) |
SG9 (GG13) | Initiate repair meta-communication if system understanding has failed. |
| SG10 (GG13) | Initiate clarification meta-communication in case of inconsistent user input. | |
| SG11 (GG13) | Initiate clarification meta-communication in case of ambiguous user input. |