Exploring User Satisfaction in a Tutorial Dialogue System

Abstract User satisfaction is a common evaluation metric in task-oriented dialogue systems, whereas tutorial dialogue systems are often evaluated in terms of student learning gain. However, user satisfaction is also important for such systems, since it may predict technology acceptance. We present a detailed satisfaction questionnaire used in evaluating the BEETLE II system (REVU-NL), and explore the underlying components of user satisfaction using factor analysis. We demonstrate interesting patterns of interaction between interpretation quality, satisfaction and the dialogue policy, highlighting the importance of more finegrained evaluation of user satisfaction

Probing neural language models for understanding of words of estimative probability

Words of estimative probability (WEP) are expressions of a statement's plausibility (probably, maybe, likely, doubt, likely, unlikely, impossible...). Multiple surveys demonstrate the agreement of human evaluators when assigning numerical probability levels to WEP. For example, highly likely corresponds to a median chance of 0.90+-0.08 in Fagen-Ulmschneider (2015)'s survey. In this work, we measure the ability of neural language processing models to capture the consensual probability level associated to each WEP. Firstly, we use the UNLI dataset (Chen et al., 2020) which associates premises and hypotheses with their perceived joint probability p, to construct prompts, e.g. "[PREMISE]. [WEP], [HYPOTHESIS]." and assess whether language models can predict whether the WEP consensual probability level is close to p. Secondly, we construct a dataset of WEP-based probabilistic reasoning, to test whether language models can reason with WEP compositions. When prompted "[EVENTA] is likely. [EVENTB] is impossible.", a causal language model should not express that [EVENTA&B] is likely. We show that both tasks are unsolved by off-the-shelf English language models, but that fine-tuning leads to transferable improvement

An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work.

Several unobtrusive sensors have been tested in studies to capture physiological reactions to stress in workplace settings. Lab studies tend to focus on assessing sensors during a specific computer task, while in situ studies tend to offer a generalized view of sensors' efficacy for workplace stress monitoring, without discriminating different tasks. Given the variation in workplace computer activities, this study investigates the efficacy of unobtrusive sensors for stress measurement across a variety of tasks. We present a comparison of five physiological measurements obtained in a lab experiment, where participants completed six different computer tasks, while we measured their stress levels using a chest-band (ECG, respiration), a wristband (PPG and EDA), and an emerging thermal imaging method (perinasal perspiration). We found that thermal imaging can detect increased stress for most participants across all tasks, while wrist and chest sensors were less generalizable across tasks and participants. We summarize the costs and benefits of each sensor stream, and show how some computer use scenarios present usability and reliability challenges for stress monitoring with certain physiological sensors. We provide recommendations for researchers and system builders for measuring stress with physiological sensors during workplace computer use

Usefulness, localizability, humanness, and language-benefit: additional evaluation criteria for natural language dialogue systems

Human–computer dialogue systems interact with human users using natural language. We used the ALICE/AIML chatbot architecture as a platform to develop a range of chatbots covering different languages, genres, text-types, and user-groups, to illustrate qualitative aspects of natural language dialogue system evaluation. We present some of the different evaluation techniques used in natural language dialogue systems, including black box and glass box, comparative, quantitative, and qualitative evaluation. Four aspects of NLP dialogue system evaluation are often overlooked: “usefulness” in terms of a user’s qualitative needs, “localizability” to new genres and languages, “humanness” or “naturalness” compared to human–human dialogues, and “language benefit” compared to alternative interfaces. We illustrated these aspects with respect to our work on machine-learnt chatbot dialogue systems; we believe these aspects are worthwhile in impressing potential new users and customers

Multi-Agent Task Allocation in Complementary Teams: A Hunter and Gatherer Approach

Consider a dynamic task allocation problem, where tasks are unknowingly distributed over an environment. This paper considers each task comprised of two sequential subtasks: detection and completion, where each subtask can only be carried out by a certain type of agent. We address this problem using a novel nature-inspired approach called "hunter and gatherer". The proposed method employs two complementary teams of agents: one agile in detecting (hunters) and another skillful in completing (gatherers) the tasks. To minimize the collective cost of task accomplishments in a distributed manner, a game-theoretic solution is introduced to couple agents from complementary teams. We utilize market-based negotiation models to develop incentive-based decision-making algorithms relying on innovative notions of "certainty and uncertainty profit margins". The simulation results demonstrate that employing two complementary teams of hunters and gatherers can effectually improve the number of tasks completed by agents compared to conventional methods, while the collective cost of accomplishments is minimized. In addition, the stability and efficacy of the proposed solutions are studied using Nash equilibrium analysis and statistical analysis respectively. It is also numerically shown that the proposed solutions function fairly, i.e. for each type of agent, the overall workload is distributed equally.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Celebrating the Past, Embracing the Future: A Select Bibliography of Published and Unpublished Materials Authored and Edited by Members of CARALL During the Period 1984-2005

This Select Bibliography, with Appendices, chronicles the published and unpublished work of Members of the Caribbean Association of Law Libraries (CARALL) over the past 21 years of its existence. In this regard, only materials produced between 1984 and 2005 have been included, with the exception of one item which predates this period

Celebrating the Past, Embracing the Future: A Select Bibliography of Published and Unpublished Materials Authored and Edited by Members of CARALL During the Period 1984-2005

This Select Bibliography, with Appendices, chronicles the published and unpublished work of Members of the Caribbean Association of Law Libraries (CARALL) over the past 21 years of its existence. In this regard, only materials produced between 1984 and 2005 have been included, with the exception of one item which predates this period

Learning to Find Proofs and Theorems by Learning to Refine Search Strategies: The Case of Loop Invariant Synthesis

We propose a new approach to automated theorem proving where an AlphaZero-style agent is self-training to refine a generic high-level expert strategy expressed as a nondeterministic program. An analogous teacher agent is self-training to generate tasks of suitable relevance and difficulty for the learner. This allows leveraging minimal amounts of domain knowledge to tackle problems for which training data is unavailable or hard to synthesize. As a specific illustration, we consider loop invariant synthesis for imperative programs and use neural networks to refine both the teacher and solver strategies