Analytic frameworks for assessing dialogic argumentation in online learning environments

Over the last decade, researchers have developed sophisticated online learning environments to support students engaging in argumentation. This review first considers the range of functionalities incorporated within these online environments. The review then presents five categories of analytic frameworks focusing on (1) formal argumentation structure, (2) normative quality, (3) nature and function of contributions within the dialog, (4) epistemic nature of reasoning, and (5) patterns and trajectories of participant interaction. Example analytic frameworks from each category are presented in detail rich enough to illustrate their nature and structure. This rich detail is intended to facilitate researchers’ identification of possible frameworks to draw upon in developing or adopting analytic methods for their own work. Each framework is applied to a shared segment of student dialog to facilitate this illustration and comparison process. Synthetic discussions of each category consider the frameworks in light of the underlying theoretical perspectives on argumentation, pedagogical goals, and online environmental structures. Ultimately the review underscores the diversity of perspectives represented in this research, the importance of clearly specifying theoretical and environmental commitments throughout the process of developing or adopting an analytic framework, and the role of analytic frameworks in the future development of online learning environments for argumentation

Human-Agent Decision-making: Combining Theory and Practice

Extensive work has been conducted both in game theory and logic to model strategic interaction. An important question is whether we can use these theories to design agents for interacting with people? On the one hand, they provide a formal design specification for agent strategies. On the other hand, people do not necessarily adhere to playing in accordance with these strategies, and their behavior is affected by a multitude of social and psychological factors. In this paper we will consider the question of whether strategies implied by theories of strategic behavior can be used by automated agents that interact proficiently with people. We will focus on automated agents that we built that need to interact with people in two negotiation settings: bargaining and deliberation. For bargaining we will study game-theory based equilibrium agents and for argumentation we will discuss logic-based argumentation theory. We will also consider security games and persuasion games and will discuss the benefits of using equilibrium based agents.Comment: In Proceedings TARK 2015, arXiv:1606.0729

Towards an Indexical Model of Situated Language Comprehension for Cognitive Agents in Physical Worlds

We propose a computational model of situated language comprehension based on the Indexical Hypothesis that generates meaning representations by translating amodal linguistic symbols to modal representations of beliefs, knowledge, and experience external to the linguistic system. This Indexical Model incorporates multiple information sources, including perceptions, domain knowledge, and short-term and long-term experiences during comprehension. We show that exploiting diverse information sources can alleviate ambiguities that arise from contextual use of underspecific referring expressions and unexpressed argument alternations of verbs. The model is being used to support linguistic interactions in Rosie, an agent implemented in Soar that learns from instruction.Comment: Advances in Cognitive Systems 3 (2014

Learning policy constraints through dialogue

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Abduction and Dialogical Proof in Argumentation and Logic Programming

We develop a model of abduction in abstract argumentation, where changes to an argumentation framework act as hypotheses to explain the support of an observation. We present dialogical proof theories for the main decision problems (i.e., finding hypothe- ses that explain skeptical/credulous support) and we show that our model can be instantiated on the basis of abductive logic programs.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 15th International Workshop on Non-Monotonic Reasoning (NMR 2014

Computational Visualistics: Dealing with Pictures in Computer Science

Building blocks from many disciplines have to be integrated into a general science of images. Computational visualistics has been formed as a contributing field embracing all aspects of dealing with images computationally. Two basic concepts of computer science are introduced. Applied to the concept "image", they determine the methodological core of computational visualistics. As the contribution of computer science to the subject of image theory, interactive pictures are examined. Finally, relations to other "image sciences" are sketched. * * * Bausteine vieler Disziplinen müssen in eine allgemeine Bildwissenschaft integriert werden. Als Beitrag aus der Informatik versteht sich die Computervisualistik, die alle Aspekte rechnergestützten Umgangs mit Bildern umfaßt. Zwei Grundbegriffe der Informatik werden vorgestellt und bestimmen, auf den Begriff "Bild" angewendet, den methodologischen Kern der Computervisualistik. Als Beitrag der Informatik zum Gegenstand der Bildtheorie werden interaktive Bilder betrachtet. Schließlich werden die Beziehungen zu anderen "Bildwissenschaften" kurz umrissen

Fostering Open Sensemaking Communities by Combining Knowledge Maps and Videoconferencing

In this paper, our aim is to investigate the role of Compendium maps for both learners and educators to share and debate interpretations in FlashMeetingTM (FM) videoconferences in the context of OpenLearn, an online environment for open learning. This work is based on a qualitative study of knowledge maps and web videoconferencing interactions, and quantitative data presented in diagnostic reports about both tools. Our theoretical approach is based on the sensemaking concept and an existing framework for three learning scenarios. Our findings describe four applications of knowledge maps in videoconferencing: (i) Mind Maps for a FM virtual lecture (transmission scenario); (ii) Learning Path Map which integrates a FM conference (studio scenario); (iii) Concept Maps during a peer-to-peer event (negotiation scenario) and (iv) Web Maps for a FM replay (assessment scenario)

An Open-Domain Dialog Act Taxonomy

This document defines the taxonomy of dialog acts that are necessary to encode domain-independent dialog moves in the context of a task-oriented, open-domain dialog. Such taxonomy is formulated to satisfy two complementary requirements: on the one hand, domain independence, i.e. the power to cover all the range of possible interactions in any type of conversation (particularly conversation oriented to the performance of tasks). On the other hand, the ability to instantiate a concrete set of tasks as defined by a specific knowledge base (such as an ontology of domain concepts and actions) and within a particular language. For the modeling of dialog acts, inspiration is taken from several well-known dialog annotation schemes, such as DAMSL (Core & Allen, 1997), TRAINS (Traum, 1996) and VERBMOBIL (Alexandersson et al., 1997)