Control and Initiative in Collaborative Problem Solving Dialogues
Pamela Jordan, Barbara Di Eugenio · 1997
In this paper we first question whether control and initiative are as synchronous as current usages appear to make them. We provide some evidence from a corpus of collaborative problem solving dialogues that control should apply to the dialogue level and initiative to the problem solving level. We then ask what role these two phenomena have in mixed initiative dialogues and present an example of how the recognition of lack of initiative at the problem solving level is cued by control at the dialogue level. Introduction In this brief position paper, we would like to pose two questions we hope are of interest to the symposium participants: 1. Are control and initiative the same phenomena? We provide some evidence that they are not. 2. What is the importance of such a distinction for mixed initiative interactive dialogues? We present some preliminary thoughts on this issue. Control vs. Initiative Control and initiative are two terms that appear to be used almost as synonyms in the li...