Quantum-Inspired Interactive Networks for Conversational Sentiment Analysis.

Conversational sentiment analysis is an emerging, yet challenging Artificial Intelligence (AI) subtask. It aims to discover the affective state of each participant in a conversation. There exists a wealth of interaction information that affects the sentiment of speakers. However, the existing sentiment analysis approaches are insufficient in dealing with this task due to ignoring the interactions and dependency relationships between utterances. In this paper, we aim to address this issue by modeling intrautterance and inter-utterance interaction dynamics. We propose an approach called quantum-inspired interactive networks (QIN), which leverages the mathematical formalism of quantum theory (QT) and the long short term memory (LSTM) network, to learn such interaction dynamics. Specifically, a density matrix based convolutional neural network (DM-CNN) is proposed to capture the interactions within each utterance (i.e., the correlations between words), and a strong-weak influence model inspired by quantum measurement theory is developed to learn the interactions between adjacent utterances (i.e., how one speaker influences another). Extensive experiments are conducted on the MELD and IEMOCAP datasets. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the QIN model

Storytelling, self, and affiliation : conversation analysis of interactions between neurotypical participants and participants with Asperger syndrome

https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/341931This dissertation examines interpersonal affiliation and the reciprocal protecting of selves and their worthiness, i.e., face-work, during conversational storytelling and story reception. The method utilized is Conversation Analysis (CA), which is a qualitative method for studying audio and video recorded interactions. CA’s purpose is unravelling recurring interactional practices through which social actions are constructed. The dataset analyzed in the study consists of ten video recordings of 45- to 60-minute dyadic conversations, where one participant has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (AS) and the other participant is neurotypical (NT), and nine video recordings, in which both participants are neurotypical. The participants were adult males, aged between 18-40 years. The participants received instructions to talk about happy events and losses in their lives in a freely chosen way. Storytelling and story reception practices have previously gained considerable attention in CA, as have the interactional practices of participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or AS. The investigation in the current study, however, involves a unique combination of these elements. Studying AS–NT interactions can increase our understanding of the underlying structures and norms of conversational storytelling and help reveal the taken for granted aspects of ‘commonsense’ that usually go unquestioned. The aim for the study is thus twofold: to investigate the face-work, storytelling and story reception practices of individuals diagnosed with AS, and to increase our understanding of these phenomena in general. More specifically, the focus of the study is on the displays of (non-)affiliation and on the differing degrees of affiliation conveyed by different interactional practices. Since the study compares the interactional practices of NT and AS participants in the same interactional setting, it inherently involves categorizing the participants. CA has generally followed the policy of ‘ethnomethodological indifference’ toward the participants’ identities and predominantly focused on how participants themselves categorize each other in their talk. However, in this study the empirical observations of the participants’ talk have been interpreted in the light of different contextual factors, which include the participants’ neurological statuses. The dissertation consists of four research articles. The first concerns stories in which the AS participants are in the spontaneously assumed role of the recipient. The results are discussed in relation to earlier CA findings on story reception and affiliation in typical interaction, as well as on AS and its specific interactional features. The second article compares the affiliation and topicality of the questions that AS and NT story recipients ask after their co-participants’ tellings. The article shows that the affiliative import of story-responsive questions can only really be seen in retrospect, because the questioner can cast their action in an affiliative or non-affiliative light in subsequent turns. The third article investigates how story recipients manage to display the right level of access to the events the teller describes in order to achieve affiliation. The article describes two main ways to accomplish this in a responsive utterance: fine-tuning the strength of one’s access claim and adjusting the degree of generalization. The fourth article explores the differences in the ways in which the AS and NT participants recognize and manage face threats in interaction, in their role as both storytellers and story recipients. The study shows how affiliation and the establishment of empathic communion between participants has several intersecting levels, as refraining from endorsing the affective stance displayed in the co-participant’s telling can sometimes be a prosocial move that protects the selves of the participants. In addition, the study suggests that the difference between the NT and AS participants lies not in the amount of affiliation per se but in the subtle use of conversational practices to manage their non-affiliation. The study proposes that future CA studies of asymmetric interactions may consider more theory-laden approaches in addition to the traditional ‘ethnomethodologically indifferent’ perspectives

Improving conversational dynamics with reactive speech synthesis

The active exchange of ideas and/or information is a crucial feature of human-human conversation. Yet it is a skill that present-day ‘conversational’ interfaces are lacking, which effectively hampers the dynamics of interaction and makes it feel artificial. In this paper, we present a reactive speech synthesis system that can handle user’s interruptions. Initial results of evaluation of our interactive experiment indicate that participants prefer a reactive system to a non-reactive one. Based on participants’ feedback, we suggest potential applications for reactive speech synthesis systems (i.e. interactive tutor and adventure game) and propose further interactive user experiments to evaluate them. We anticipate that the reactive system can offer more engaging and dynamic interaction and improve user experience by making it feel more like a natural human-human conversation

How Do Words and Body Language Diverge? Perceptions, Antecedents, and Consequences of Verbal and Nonverbal Emotional Expressions in Close Relationships

Emotional expressions play a substantive role in building and maintaining high-functioning close relationships (Algoe et al., 2013; Gable et al., 2004). However, it is not clear from existing work whether the ways in which we express emotion, specifically through verbal and nonverbal channels, might be impacting how relationships are built and maintained. In the four chapters of this dissertation, one of which provides a review of the literature within a theoretical framework and three of which are empirical, I explore the different functions these channels might have for building relationships with a particular focus on identifying how verbal and nonverbal channels are operating within highly satisfied and committed relationships. In the first chapter, I outline how verbal emotional expressions, because they are clear and undeniable, may signal that an expresser is vulnerable and is sharing their emotion intentionally, whereas nonverbal expressions may signal that an emotion is genuinely felt as well as the intensity of that emotion. I then evaluate this framework empirically, finding evidence that verbal emotional expressions are perceived to be intentional and sincere and that nonverbal expressions are also perceived to be sincere. I next examine the links between these channels of expression and their potential relational antecedents and consequences, finding that an expresser’s responsiveness and trust in the partner predict both their verbal and nonverbal expression in established, highly satisfied romantic relationships. Intriguingly, I also find unexpected evidence for the importance of relational context in that expressers are helped most (and marginally liked the most) when they express nervousness nonverbally without an accompanying verbal expression in a newly initiated relationship. In sum, this dissertation provides evidence for some differential functions of verbal and nonverbal expressions for building relationships and indicates the need to more deeply examine this distinction

The effect of relational status on perceptions of gay disparaging humor

A lot of popular comedians are known for their transgressive humor towards social groups, but disparagement humor is not just restricted to stages or media performances. We encounter it everywhere or perhaps use it ourselves. In this paper, we were interested in how people react to disparaging jokes (i.e., homophobic jokes) across different relational settings. Adapting Fiske’s relational models theory, we examined how status differences in relationships affect the perception of and cognition about socially disparaging jokes. In Study 1 (N = 77), we piloted seven potentially disparaging jokes about gay men in relation to how they are perceived. In Study 2 (N = 288), using one joke from Study 1, we constructed vignettes manipulating the sexual orientation of the source of the joke in the dyad (i.e., heterosexual, gay, both heterosexual) and their status differences across relational models (i.e., high, equal, and low status). We found that the joke was perceived to be less funny, more offensive, and more morally wrong, and to contain more harm intent if it came from a heterosexual person rather than a gay person. Study 3 (N = 197) used concrete status differences in relationships in terms of existing intergroup dimensions. Results showed that the joke was perceived as more offensive, less acceptable and more morally wrong when it came from a high authority source (e.g., professor rather than a student). Overall, these findings bring the first evidence to link disparagement humor with relational models and show the importance status differences in the perception of disparagement humor