The communication of factual information through various channels

Abstract

The research reported here is aimed at discovering principles of human communication that may be useful in the design of conversational computers of the future. Two-man teams were asked to solve credible, real-world problems of the kind for which computers have been, or could be, of assistance. The teams communicated in different modes simulating various input-output channels between the computer and its human user. These modes were: Typewriting, handwriting, voice, and natural unrestricted communication. The results of two experiments show that subjects can solve problems much faster when they communicate in either of the two oral modes (voice and natural communication) rather than in either of the two hard-copy modes (typewriting and handwriting). One comparison shows that typing skill per se apparently has only a small influence on communication time. Although solutions were reached much more quickly in the two oral modes, the number of messages and the number of words exchanged in these modes is very much greater than the corresponding numbers in the hard-copy modes, thus implying greatly different rates of information transmission. Natural human communication is characterized by a great many small errors that would result in a complete failure of communication between man and computer. If they are to be truly conversational, computers of the future will have to be made much more forgiving of the many small errors that we so readily accept and overlook in our ordinary communications. The freedom to interrupt messages is an expensive option to provide in computer systems. One series of comparisons shows that the freedom to interrupt has only a negligible effect on the efficiency of human communication. p]The paper ends with a statement of some problems still to be solved if we are ever to have truly interactive conversational computers.