Computer-mediated Conversation Research Articles

Modality effect in interactive alignment: Differences between spoken and text-based conversation

A distinctive feature of dialogue is the convergence of linguistic choices. The Interactive Alignment Model posits that this convergence is obtained by a mechanism of priming that operates at all levels of linguistic representation. Under the model, priming is supposed to foster mutual understanding. Experimental research has confirmed that priming increases language production and comprehension ease. However, the influence of constraints caused by the medium of communication on alignment remains unexplored. In this paper, we look at structural alignment in face-to-face and synchronous text-based communication. In our study, we analysed the influence of different factors on structural alignment in two datasets, one of computer-mediated conversation and the other of spoken conversations, and found that the likelihood of structural alignment in both cases is determined by the same factors. However, when comparing the overall magnitude of structural alignment in the two datasets, we found a greater magnitude of structural alignment in text-based conversations. In our view, this result suggests that structural alignment is used to trade off the constraints of the text-based medium.

Automatically detecting task-unrelated thoughts during conversations using keystroke analysis.

Task-unrelated thought (TUT), commonly referred to as mind wandering, is a mental state where a person’s attention moves away from the task-at-hand. This state is extremely common, yet not much is known about how to measure it, especially during dyadic interactions. We thus built a model to detect when a person experiences TUTs while talking to another person through a computer-mediated conversation, using their keystroke patterns. The best model was able to differentiate between task-unrelated thoughts and task-related thoughts with a kappa of 0.363, using features extracted from a 15 second window. We also present a feature analysis to provide additional insights into how various typing behaviors can be linked to our ongoing mental states.

Comparative study of the effect of face-to-face and computer mediated conversation modalities on student engagement: speaking skill in focus

This study investigated the potentials of face –to- face and computer mediated conversation (CMC) as two speaking modalities on students’ engagement. To this end, 30 Iranian male intermediate EFL learners were selected on the basis of their performance on OPT (Oxford Placement Test) and assigned into the research groups. The progression of face- to- face and CMC groups from limited to elaborate engagement at verbal, paralinguistic and functional levels was assessed using transcription analysis in face-to-face group and chat log analysis in CMC group. The limited and elaborate student engagement indicators in two modalities were identified via Maxqda software. The results of Maxqda analysis indicated that limited engagement was associated with appeal for help, silence, pauses and hesitations, focus on syntax, involvement with procedural talk and L1 use. Respectively, elaborate engagement was associated with avoiding L1 use, focus on discourse, involvement with actual talk and strategic discourse management rather than pause and silence. Chi-square analysis on frequency of indicators of limited and elaborate engagements on verbal, paralinguistic and functional levels indicated that limited and elaborate engagements occurred with different proportions in face-to-face and CMC conversations. Teaching practitioners would benefit the findings of the study since the findings illustrate how students’ engagement in learning evolves and how speaking modalities may impact the pattern of students’ engagement over time. The finding also suggest one way for improving student engagement without over-intervening of teachers is using modalities such as forums where the teacher presence is limited and students have to manage the discourse themselves which in turn increases student engagement.

Exposing patterns of adult solicitor behaviour: towards a theory of control within the cybersexual abuse of youth

ABSTRACT The online solicitation of youth has been established as an unintended consequence of the connectedness afforded individuals through computer-mediated conversation. Information systems research focused on the behavioural patterns of online solicitors of youth is scant and lacks a strong theoretical foundation. We address this gap through an evolved grounded theory analysis of 90 Perverted Justice transcripts to extract the behavioural patterns that emerge when online solicitors use instant messaging to enact behaviours of grooming, predation, offending, and control. The aims of the research are: (1) delineate between grooming behaviour, predatory behaviour, and offending behaviour; (2) differentiate between passive and controlling solicitor language; (3) disentangle these behaviours from what the technology permits; (4) extend the current understanding of cybersexual abuse to show grooming as only one aspect of a phenomenon that also includes predation and offence; and (5) identify how these results are important for academics and software developers.

Why does site visit matter in global software development: A knowledge-based perspective

ContextFace-to-Face (F2F) interaction is a strong means to foster social relationships and effective knowledge sharing within a team. However, communication in Global Software Development (GSD) teams is usually restricted to computer-mediated conversation that is perceived to be less effective and interpersonal. Temporary collocation of dispersed members of a software development team is a well-known practice in GSD. Despite broad realization of the benefits of visits, there is lack of empirical evidence that explores how temporary F2F interactions are organized in practice and how they can impact knowledge sharing between sites. ObjectiveThis study aimed at empirically investigating activities that take place during temporary collocation of dispersed members and analyzing the outcomes of the visit for supporting and improving knowledge sharing. MethodWe report a longitudinal case study of a GSD team distributed between Denmark and Pakistan. We have explored a particular visit organized for a group of offshore team members visiting onshore site for two weeks. Our findings are based on a systematic and rigorous analysis of the calendar entries of the visitors during the studied visit, several observations of a selected set of the team members’ activities during the visit and 13 semi-structured interviews. ResultsLooking through the lens of knowledge-based theory of the firm, we have found that social and professional activities organized during the visit, facilitated knowledge sharing between team members from both sites. The findings are expected to contribute to building a common knowledge and understanding about the role and usefulness of the site visits for supporting and improving knowledge sharing in GSD teams by establishing and sustaining social and professional ties.

Smiling synchronicity and gaze patterns in dyadic humorous conversations

AbstractThis present article is part of a larger study on speaker-hearer allocation of attentional resources in face-to-face interactions. The goal of the paper is twofold: first, we present results concerning the degree of correlation, in computer-mediated conversation, between speaker’s timing and intensity of smiling when humor is either present or absent in the conversation. The results were obtained from the analysis of five dyadic interactions between English speakers that were video and audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to establish a baseline of synchronicity of smiling among participants. From the study it emerged that conversational partners engaged in humorous conversations not only reciprocate each other’s smiling, but also match each other’s smiling intensity. Our data led to the identification of different smiling and non-smiling synchronic behaviors that point to the existence of a synchronous multimodal relationship between humorous events and smiling intensity for conversational partners. Second, in the last part of the paper, we argue for the need of a multimodal conversational corpus in humor studies and present the corpus that is being collected, annotated, and analyzed at Texas A&M University–Commerce. The corpus consists of humorous interactions among dyads of native speakers of English, Spanish, and Chinese for which video, audio, and eye-tracking data have been recorded. As part of this section of the paper, we also present some preliminary results based on the analysis of one English conversation, and some exploratory analysis of Chinese data, that show that greater attention is paid to facial areas involved in smiling when humor is present. This study sheds light on the role of smiling as a discourse marker (Attardo, S., L. Pickering, F. Lomotey & S. Menjo. 2013. Multimodality in Conversational Humor.

Migração e ficcionalização da conversação mediada por computador: a Sessão Codorna do grupo Snapetes

This paper presents a study on the influence of computer-mediated conversation on building a collective fictional writing in the universe of online fandoms. The study focuses on the online interactions of a Brazilian female group of fans that calls themselves Snapetes . This group is formed by adult women who write stories starring Severus Snape, a Harry Potter character. The study verified the migrating of conversation between different platforms, as well as the creative potential of the group to fictionalizing the content of their online conversations. This paper considers two theoretical approaches: the research on computer-mediated conversation, supplemented by studies on fandoms and fan fictions. Keywords: computer-mediated conversation, migration and fictionalization of conversation, Snapetes group.

Online conversations: a sociolinguistic investigation into young adults’ use of videochats

Conversation, the social and socialising activity par excellence, has undergone a profound semiotic and phenomenological transformation in the contemporary age. Broadly speaking, conversation used to be associated with speech and a shared context of situation in many linguistic approaches (e.g., conversation analysis), but computer-mediated conversation (e.g., videochat) challenges well-established notions of what a conversation actually is. How is conversation modified by the use of digital technologies? To what extent is a computer-mediated conversation different from a face-to-face conversation? What degree of awareness do young adults possess as regards the communicative affordances that computer-mediated conversations allow? Can videochats be successfully used in and outside class and how? This paper sets out to highlight the fundamental role of conversation as a social and socialising activity and to illustrate from a theoretical standpoint some of its contemporary technologically constrained modifications, such as those present in computer-mediated conversations. Our aim is also to present data collected through a sociolinguistic research carried out between 2009 and 2010. Questionnaires, structured and semi-structured interviews were administered to a sample of 100 English-speaking high school and university students. The project was focused on how young adults (15–20 years old) engage with video conversations, with specific reference to the combined use of speech and writing in videochats. Significant alterations in conversational patterns in videochats are outlined and discussed, taking into account specific features. We also contend that such findings encourage applications in the field of foreign language learning and teaching.

Imagining the Wikipedia community: What do Wikipedia authors mean when they write about their ‘community’?

This article examines the way Wikipedia authors write their ‘community’ into being. Mobilizing concepts regarding the communicative constitution of communities, the computer-mediated conversation between editors were investigated using Grounded Theory procedures. The analysis yielded an empirically grounded theory of the users’ self-understanding of the Wikipedia community as ethos-action community. Hence, this study contributes to research on online community-building as it shifts the focus from structural criteria for communities to the discursive level of community formation.

Content, Context, Reflexivity and the Qualitative Research Encounter: Telling Stories in the Virtual Realm

The arrival of the virtual realm and computer-mediated communication (CMC) has attracted considerable interest within the discipline. However, the full potential of computer-mediated conversation as both a research resource and medium of communication within the qualitative research encounter awaits further exploration. In this paper, I discuss the dimensions of the qualitative ‘tradition’, the recent burgeoning interest in biographical methods shaping the research agenda and the significance of the virtual realm as a locus of communication. In so doing, I draw from my recent research exploring 15 women's accounts of their experiences of infertility and assisted reproductive procedures. Often, the qualitative encounter becomes a shared medium of trust, reciprocity and revelation. This research highlights the importance of not just making ‘space’ for participants voices and words but of acknowledging the significance of the context of communication itself – paying attention to ‘where’ and ‘how’ we speak is as critical as paying attention to what might be said. Participants within this study used and translated virtual text and virtual participation into a sense-making vehicle. In this respect, the virtual space offers a new dimension to the qualitative research encounter and we need to remain aware of the opportunities this affords.

Communication in Internet message boards

A quantitative analysis of usage in Computer-Mediated Conversation (CMC).While commentators as ‘early’ as 1984 were predicting that the “organizational, social, and personal effects of computers will be deeply felt”, they could only speculate on the strength of its impact. As this account was being written, at the end of 2001, the effects of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) were fast overtaking our poor ability to measure them. There are many ways to communicate through computers: Usenet newsgroups, mailing lists, and message boards, which allow users to discuss specific topics with each other. (The term CMC allows for the possibility that some methods of communication, e.g., “chat rooms”, will not meet the definition of ‘mail’. The most popular method of CMC is e-mail. For those who have internet access, CMC is often their preferred choice of indirect (i.e., non face-to-face) communication, thanks to its speed, efficiency, and flexibility. Perhaps for these reasons, e-mail has already overtaken the telephone as the primary means of business communication.

Impression Formation in Computer-Mediated Communication Revisited

Following either a text-based, synchronous computer-mediated conversation (CMC) or a face-to-face dyadic interaction, 80 participants rated their partners' personality profile. Impressions were assessed in terms of both their breadth (the comprehensiveness of the impression) and intensity (the magnitude of the attributions). Results indicated that impressions formed in the CMC environment were less detailed but more intense than those formed face-to-face. These data provide support for theories that, in addition to acknowledging the unique constraints and characteristics of CMC, consider the cognitive strategies and heuristics involved in the impression formation process. The differential impact of a text-based medium on trait-specific impressions (e.g., extraversion, neuroticism) is also discussed in the context of a cross-modal approach to impression formation.

Computer-Mediated Chat

Computer-Mediated Chat

What computers are good for in the literature classroom

This summary essay comments on the contents of and issues raised by the special number of Computers and Humanities on Computers and the Teaching of Literature. It argues against the use of hypertextual resources without careful pedagogical understanding of the dangers they present of encouraging students to become passive consumers rather than active thinkers. It argues for the use of computer-mediated conversation, computer-modeling, and computer analyses of texts as appropriate applications in the literature classroom.

Structure and support in cooperative environments: the Amsterdam Conversation Environment

This paper discusses theory and concepts in designing a synchronous shared workspace to support human interaction, and a description of such a system. The Amsterdam Conversation Environment (ACE) supports group interaction in faceto-face meetings. ACE does not, however, support meeting process; instead it is designed to support conversation and stimulate interaction among group participants. The ACE design emerges from design conversations seeded with several specific concepts. One is the notion of semi-structured computer applications, which leave room for the development, by users, of group conventions to structure how the group interfaces with the computer support environment. A related topic is the difficulty of setting “support” boundaries: what should the machine do or enable vs what are the structure and function responsibilities of user group members themselves? Another concept is the development of user-languages as a reflection of group experience and coherence. A third concept is the transition away from group-member equivalence within computer-mediated conversation (a currently favored view in the design of “democratic” computer systems) toward encouraging variety and stimulating “next actions” among users. Using these and other concepts, we create an overall conceptual picture of what ACE does, how it feels, and how the user interface looks and works, which we call the “design image”. We conclude with some thoughts about the next steps in the project.

A conversation model for resolving conflicts among distributed office activities

In many cases, office workers perform their tasks based on certain plans. In a cooperative environment, where many individuals establish their plans, conflicts between these plans will inevitably arise. A reason for conflicts between different plans is, for instance, the competition for shared resources such as special equipment or a reservation for a meeting room. In such cases, plans may prevent each other from being executed as intended, which reduces the overall performance of an organization. There are two main problems tackled by our approach: First, to detect potential conflicts between several individual plans as early as possible and, second, to relieve the actors in an organization as much as possible from their burden to settle conflicts. In our approach, conflicts are settled by an agreement among agents in conflict. The agreement is reached by a computer-mediated conversation (negotiation) between the agents. One key factor for the detection of conflicts among individually created plans and for guiding the conflict resolution process are the temporal relationships between actions in conflict. The role of temporal constraints for coordinating distributed activities will be described in detail.