Building Rapport through Dynamic Models of Acoustic-Prosodic Entrainment
Nichola Lubold · 2017
As dialogue systems become more prevalent in the form of personalized assistants, there is an increasingly important role for systems which can socially engage the user by influencing social factors like rapport. For example, learning companions enhance learning through socio-motivational support and are more successful when users feel rapport. In this work, I explore social engagement in dialogue systems in terms of acoustic-prosodic entrainment; entrainment is a phenomenon where over the course of a conversation, speakers adapt their acoustic-prosodic features, becoming more similar in their pitch, intensity, or speaking rate. Correlated with rapport and task success, entrainment plays a significant role in how individuals connect; a system which can entrain has potential to improve social engagement by enhancing these factors. As a result of this work, I introduce a dialogue system which can entrain and investigate its effects on social factors like rapport.