Project Details
Projekt
SFB 673: Alignment in Communication
Subject Area
Humanities
Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Term
from 2006 to 2015
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 13226603
The notion of interactive alignment presents a new, innovative alternative to more established theories of human communication. The approach emphasises the role of automaticity and routinisation in bringing about alignment at various levels of representation within and between interlocutors. Following an overview of the basic ideas of the interactive alignment account, its limitations and its potential as a paradigm for cognitive science are discussed. While certain limitations arise from the fact that the account requires further empirical support and some conceptual clarification, and that the interface of alignment and negotiation in conversation is not very well understood to date, these shortcomings inherently carry some of the scientific potential of the interactive alignment account. Hence, in subsequence, the scientific prospects are outlined.
These relate mainly to the prerequisites for a unitary process model of communication, the explanatory power of the notion of alignment, the specification of the cognitive mechanisms in intra- and interpersonal convergence, the development of appropriate research methods, and the generalisation of the alignment approach to domains like multimodal communication and human-machine interaction. The notion of alignment in communication provides a versatile, promising and fruitful basis for a research initiative of the same name.
We believe that a research initiative focussed on this 'new side' of communication will substantially contribute to the theoretical development in the humanities and, at the same time, bring about practical advancement in technology. The ultimate purpose of such a research initiative is to extend our knowledge about the cognitive processes underlying language production and comprehension in human-human communication as well as in natural language use in human-machine interaction. At that, an interdisciplinary approach must be taken, bringing together linguistics, artificial intelligence, neuroinformatics, neurolinguistics, computational linguistics and psycholinguistics, and employing a conjoint methodology that integrates theory, description and experimentation with simulation and evaluation. Such an endeavour is informative and timely, it is promising, and it is exciting.
These relate mainly to the prerequisites for a unitary process model of communication, the explanatory power of the notion of alignment, the specification of the cognitive mechanisms in intra- and interpersonal convergence, the development of appropriate research methods, and the generalisation of the alignment approach to domains like multimodal communication and human-machine interaction. The notion of alignment in communication provides a versatile, promising and fruitful basis for a research initiative of the same name.
We believe that a research initiative focussed on this 'new side' of communication will substantially contribute to the theoretical development in the humanities and, at the same time, bring about practical advancement in technology. The ultimate purpose of such a research initiative is to extend our knowledge about the cognitive processes underlying language production and comprehension in human-human communication as well as in natural language use in human-machine interaction. At that, an interdisciplinary approach must be taken, bringing together linguistics, artificial intelligence, neuroinformatics, neurolinguistics, computational linguistics and psycholinguistics, and employing a conjoint methodology that integrates theory, description and experimentation with simulation and evaluation. Such an endeavour is informative and timely, it is promising, and it is exciting.
DFG Programme
Collaborative Research Centres
Completed projects
- A01 - Modelling partners (Project Heads Knoeferle, Pia ; Wachsmuth, Ipke )
- A02 - Processing of implicit common ground (Project Heads Jäger, Gerhard ; Rickheit, Gert )
- A03 - Dialogue games and group dynamics (Project Heads Mehler, Alexander ; de Ruiter, Jan P. ; Sichelschmidt, Lorenz )
- A04 - Alignment of situation models (Project Heads Rickheit, Gert ; de Ruiter, Jan P. ; Wachsmuth, Sven )
- A05 - Alignment of attention in mediated communication (Project Heads Ritter, Helge ; Sagerer, Gerhard ; Sichelschmidt, Lorenz )
- A06 - Die evolutionäre Dynamik von Sender-Empfänger-Spielen: mathematische Grundlagen und Anwendung von der Linguistik (Project Heads Jäger, Gerhard ; Riedel, Frank )
- A08 - Constructions: Bridging the gap between syntax and semantics (Project Heads Kracht, Marcus Andreas ; Vogel, Ralf )
- B01 - Speech-gesture alignment (Project Heads Bergmann, Kirsten ; Kopp, Stefan ; Rieser, Hannes )
- B04 - Rhythm and timing in dialogue (Project Heads Kopp, Stefan ; Wachsmuth, Ipke ; Wagner, Petra )
- B05 - Anticipatory alignment in dialogue (Project Heads Müller, Horst M. ; de Ruiter, Jan P. )
- B06 - Understanding alignment from misalignment (Project Heads Cimiano, Philipp ; Rohlfing, Katharina ; Stenneken, Prisca )
- C01 - Interaction space (Project Heads Pfeiffer, Thies ; Wachsmuth, Ipke ; Wachsmuth, Sven )
- C02 - Communicating emotions (Project Heads Knoeferle, Pia ; Stenneken, Prisca ; Wrede, Britta )
- C03 - Repairs and reformulations in dialogue (Project Heads Eikmeyer, Hans-Jürgen ; Kindt, Walther ; Weingarten, Rüdiger )
- C04 - Adaptive alignment in human-robot-cooperation (Project Heads Haschke, Robert ; Pardowitz, Michael ; Ritter, Helge )
- C05 - Alignment in AR-based cooperation (Project Heads Hermann, Thomas ; Pitsch, Karola )
- INFX01 - Multimodal alignment corpora: Statistical modeling and information management (Project Heads Cimiano, Philipp ; Eikmeyer, Hans-Jürgen ; Mehler, Alexander ; Rieser, Hannes ; Schlangen, David ; Wachsmuth, Sven )
- Z - Central tasks of the Collaborative Research Centre (Project Heads de Ruiter, Jan P. ; Wachsmuth, Ipke )
Applicant Institution
Universität Bielefeld
Spokespersons
Professor Dr. Jan P. de Ruiter, since 7/2012; Professor Dr. Ipke Wachsmuth, until 7/2012
