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When seeking information, children expect informants to provide information that is congruent with their knowledge and to use conventional labels. Violations of these linguistic expectations influence their behaviour and perceptions, as they are less likely to seek information from informants with a history of inaccuracy or of violation of conversational form (Eskritt et al., 2008; Koenig & Harris, 2005) and perceive unreliable informants as “silly” (Brosseau-Liard & Birch, 2010). I explored whether violations of linguistic expectations influence children’s perceptions of knowledgeability and helpfulness and whether these characteristics predict children’s information seeking. Forty 5-year-olds observed a farmer and a car mechanic label objects for a foreign child. The objects were associated with one of the two informants, rendering one as the expert, and the other as the non-expert. The informants labelled the familiarization objects by stating either the object’s color or its super ordinate category. During test trials, children selected one of the two informants to label novel objects that were either related or unrelated to either one’s domain of expertise (i.e. novel animals, tools or odd objects). Finally, children rated informant’s knowledge of the familiarization objects and their willingness to help the foreign child. Results show that children perceive an informant who provided the super ordinate category as more helpful and somewhat more knowledgeable than one who provides the colour. When labelling objects related to the informants’ domain of expertise, children rely on expertise to seek information. For unrelated novel objects, a trend suggests that perceptions of the expert’s knowledge influence decision making. These results provide new factors underlying children’s information seeking. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-29 11:43:23.22

The following study used politeness theory to explore the impact of simultaneously engaging in a face to face conversation and a text message conversation. Specifically the study used Brown and Levinson’s (1978, 1987) five original politeness strategies to see whether strategy choice (in the face to face conversation) impacts the face threat present in engaging in multiple conversations. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to understand the impact different politeness strategies had on the following variables: conversational appropriateness, relational/social appropriateness, immediacy, attentiveness, and politeness. Findings show that when a face to face partner ignores (no verbal/nonverbal politeness) a text message interruption the partner is seen as more relational/socially appropriate, immediate, attentive, and polite. Findings also indicate that aside from ignoring the text message, politeness messages that acknowledge the text message interruption and offer a relevant verbal message are viewed as more relationally/socially appropriate, immediate, attentive, and polite than those that indirectly deal with the text interruption. This study partially supports the popular belief that texting in the presence of others violates face to face conversational expectations and is perceived as “rude.” However, future studies need to look at the role and influence mediated conversational expectations play in overall conversational expectations.

Background: Conversation is the archetypal mode of communication. As a process it draws on numerous skills, and predispositions, adapting to dynamic contexts and coordinated in highly sophisticated ways for successful interaction. The combination of these abilities with contextual variables coalesces uniquely to represent what this research proposes to be conversational intelligence. It is argued here that high levels of conversational intelligence rest to a large degree on executive functions (EF) which are steadily becoming more widely acknowledged and researched within the communication domain. The impairment of EF in neurologically injured individuals has significant, though as yet undisclosed, repercussions for recovery, response to therapy and ability to integrate communication skills in every day interactions to support conversational success. This study incorporates some new approaches to the study of communication disorders following stroke, including conversation, executive functions and the possibility of pharmacological intervention. Aims: The aims of this study were to describe in detail the language, executive function and conversational characteristics of ten individuals who had experienced strokes and to examine the relationships among these three areas of functioning. In addition, this research investigated the response of these ten participants to pharmacological therapy on a one month trial of Leviteracetam (LEV). Methods and Procedures: Ten individuals who had suffered single incident strokes were recruited from local community and rehabilitation facility referrals. All ten participated in a four stage randomised, double blind investigation including baseline, active, placebo and withdrawal phases. At each stage participants underwent testing on an EF battery and were recorded having conversations with familiar interlocutors. In addition, significant others completed a rating scale assessing affective features and behaviours and language testing was conducted at the baseline phase using the WAB. The language and EF data were scored and the conversations subjected to Conversation Analysis. For each participant, profiles were created and assessed for interrelationships between the executive characteristics and conversational features representative of each executive construct. Repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted on EF data for the four phases of the study to determine significant pharmacological effects. Outcomes and Results: The majority of the sample presented with significant EF deficits across most areas assessed. Two participants presented with essentially intact profiles which were not explained in terms of types of aphasia or site of lesion. Language results proved to be inconsistently associated with EF deficits, but conversational features reflected underlying executive strengths or deficits with greater consistency. Two participants experienced amelioration (though not statistically significant) of interference control during the active phase, with observable improvements in conversational skill. One participant demonstrated improved conversation without a change in EF scores. The response to LEV is evaluated with reference to potential alternatives. Conclusions: The existence of EF deficits in individuals with stroke is demonstrated. Furthermore, the impact of these impairments is considerable and observable during naturally occurring conversations, suggesting the centrality of the EF contribution to conversational intelligence. The lack of association between formal language test scores and EF impairments argues for the inclusion of more authentic assessment approaches for stroke patients. The data is explored in terms of specific consequences of different lesion sites on EF and communication and briefly addresses bilingualism as a potential variable in explaining some of the variations in the data. Pharmacotherapy is addressed as an important focus of future research protocols. Implications for assessment and treatment are discussed as well as proposals for future study.

This paper aims to show how people use and understand metaphorical language in conversational discourse. Specifically, I examine how metaphorical language has the potential to be either effective or ineffective in its usage, and how they are bound to the contextual environment of the conversation. This particular setting is a conversation between a researcher and a participant involved in a therapeutic program. Metaphorical language is shown to be helpful for understanding difficult subjects; however, I found most metaphorical occurrences ineffective in meaning-making. Often these ineffective metaphors are elaborated or repeated throughout the discourse event, creating problems with cohesion and understanding. Metaphor use in conversation is an effective rhetorical tool for creating meaning, but it is also a problematic device when it comes to aligning participants' conversational goal.

In real-world conversational groups, interactants adjust their body position and orientation relative to one another in order to see and hear clearly. We use an agent-based modelling approach to compare alternative models for simulating the spatial patterns of conversational groups. The models are based on simple rules that control the movement, positioning, and orientation behaviour of individual agents, which in turn leads to the emergence of agent clusters. We identify which model alternative produces agent clusters with characteristics typical of real-world conversational groups. The centroid-based approach, where agents readjust their position and orientation with respect to the group centroid point, is a commonly used method to simulate conversational groups, but has not been empirically validated. This thesis replicates, evaluates, and validates the centroid-based model in a systematic way. Another model, where agents perform positional-orientational readjustments to see as many neighbours as possible within a 180 field of view, called the field-of-view approach is proposed, implemented, evaluated, and validated. Analysis of the spatial patterns of conversational groups has hitherto mostly relied on visual verification. We, novelly, use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse the spatial patterns of conversational groups. Evaluations show that the field of- view model and centroid-based model produce agent clusters with significantly different social, spatial, and temporal characteristics. Validation is performed using a dataset which captures the spatial behaviour of 21 participants for the entire duration of a party. This validation shows that the characteristics of agent clusters resulting from the field-of-view model most closely reflects the characteristics of real-world conversational groups. We also show that a local neighbourhood influence works better than an extended neighbourhood influence to simulate conversational groups. The influence of objects in the environment on the spatial patterns of agent clusters are also discussed.

"Consider two people having a face-to-face conversation. They sometimes listen, sometimes talk, and sometimes interrupt each other. They use facial expressions to signal that they are confused. They point at objects. They jump from topic to topic opportunistically. When another acquaintance walks by, they nod and say hello. All the while they have other concerns on their mind, such as not missing the meeting that starts in 10 minutes. Like many other humans behaviors, these are not easy to replicate in artificial agents. In this work we look into the design requirements of an embodied agent that can participate in such natural conversations in a mixed-initiative, multi-modal setting. Such an agent needs to understand participating in a conversation is not merely a matter of sending a message and then waiting to receive a response -- both partners are simultaneously active at all times. This agent should be able to deal with different, sometimes conflicting goals, and be always ready to address events that may interrupt the current topic of conversation. To address those requirements, we have created a modular architecture that includes distributed functional units that compete with each other to gain control over available resources. Each of these units, called a schema, has its own sense- think-act cycle. In the field of robotics, this design is often referred to as "behavior-based" or "schema-based." The major contribution of this work is merging behavior-based robotics with plan- based human-computer interaction."

Thesis (M.A. (Translation studies and linguistics)) --University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus), 2010 / The researcher was motivated to conduct this research because there is a prevalence (high rate) use of code-switching among high school learners, teachers and students in tertiary institutions as well as in Xitsonga texts. This was observed by evaluating selected Xitsonga literature or text books with the aim of investigating why characters in the text books use code-switching as a conversational strategy. Based on the research findings, it became evident that characters/speakers switch because they have a lack of language proficiency, in their language or the target language. Their switch appears to be influenced by their statuses, the lack of equivalent words, the situations they find themselves in and the urge to be socially accepted by their peers. It is recommended that speakers need to learn their language adequately in order to communicate effectively without having to switch

In a phonological assessment, the aim is to obtain systematic and reliable data of a child's speech output, which can then serve as a basis for a decision on an appropriate intervention (Wolk & Meisler, 1998). Whether phonological assessment should be derived from an analysis of picture-naming or a conversation with the child, and whether the two methods for elicitation generate equivalent results, has been debated among clinicians and researchers for an extended time (Masterson, Bernhardt & Hofheintz, 2005). The aim of the present study was to compare two methods of speech elicitation for phonological assessment: spontaneous conversation and picture-naming, respectively. In the study, the procedures have been used when assessing children with phonological disorders as well as children with typical language development. The results are presented using two levels of phonological analysis; degree of phonological impairment, in terms of percentage of phonemes correct (PPC), and type of phonological impairment, in terms of phonological simplification processes. Eighteen (18) children participated in the study, nine (9) with phonological impairment (age 3;10 – 5;11), and nine with typical phonologic development (age 3;2 – 4;6). No significant differences were found regarding the percentage of phonemes correct between the two elicitation methods, neither for the group of children with phonological impairment, nor for the group of children with typical phonological development. Thus, the degree of speech difficulties was the same regardless of elicitation method. In assessing the type of impairment, however, a comparison between the sensitivity and the specificity obtained in the two tests indicate that there is a difference in how well the two elicitation methods intercept the phonological simplification processes. In the two elicitating methods, exactly the same processes could not be found in the speech of any child. The discussion includes the consequences of word structure, position and context of phonemes in the different speech samples. Furthermore, advantages and disadvantages of using the different elicitation methods in phonological assessment are discussed. The present study contributes to an increased knowledge about the ability to capture phonological problems sing picture-naming and conversational speech samples, respectively, in assessing a child’s speech. Furthermore, the study presents input to the on-going debate on phonological assessment, and may contribute to reflectance when selecting a clinical assessment tool.

Introduktion Alla samtal karaktäriseras av en önskan att förstå varandra och av ett samarbete för att nå dit. Det är välkänt att samtal mellan personer med nedsatt kommunikationsförmåga och normaltalare ofta är ojämlika och att deltagaren utan funktionsnedsättning dominerar samspelet.   Syfte: Syftet med föreliggande arbete är att kartlägga vardagliga kommunikationssituationer där en deltagare med kommunikativt funktionshinder interagerar med olika samtalspartners.   Metod: I studien deltog två förskolebarn som använder tecken som alternativ och/ eller kompletterande kommunikation, TAKK. Barnen filmades i vardagliga miljöer hemma och på förskolan med olika samspelspartners. Materialet analyserades utifrån principer från Conversation Analysis.   Resultat: Flera fenomen framkom som stöder tidigare forskningsresultat. Samtalens innehåll utgick till stor del från ett här- och nuperspektiv. Många exempel fanns på hur samtalet övergick till en tydligare inlärningssituation där fokus riktades mot kommunikationens form, snarare än dess innehåll. Det noterades även att den vuxne återanvände barnets uttryck för att repetera det korrekt och på så sätt ge en modell för det talade ordet och tecknet samt att utvidga barnets sats. När det gällde barnens samtal med varandra, visade det sig att den vuxne som fanns närvarande i rummet ofta lämnade egna bidrag i samtalet.     Konklusion: En viktig iakttagelse för den kliniska verksamheten är att en kommunikationssituation ofta övergår från informell till formell genom att fokusera på kommunikationens form istället för på dess innehåll. Det är av stor vikt att poängtera detta för de vuxna i barnens omgivning vid introduktion av AKK då barnen behöver uppleva att man samarbetar för att uppnå gemensam förståelse .