BPM_MT: Enhanced Backchannel Prediction Model using Multi-Task Learning
Jin Yea Jang, San Kim, Minyoung Jung, Saim Shin, Gahgene Gweon · Proceedings of the 2021 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing · 2021
Backchannel (BC), a short reaction signal of a listener to a speaker's utterances, helps to improve the quality of the conversation.Several studies have been conducted to predict BC in conversation; however, the utilization of advanced natural language processing techniques using lexical information presented in the utterances of a speaker has been less considered.To address this limitation, we present a BC prediction model called BPM_MT (Backchannel prediction model with multitask learning), which utilizes KoBERT, a pre-trained language model.The BPM_MT simultaneously carries out two tasks at learning: 1) BC category prediction using acoustic and lexical features, and 2) sentiment score prediction based on sentiment cues.BPM_MT exhibited 14.24% performance improvement compared to the existing baseline in the four BC categories: continuer, understanding, empathic response, and No BC.In particular, for empathic response category, a performance improvement of 17.14% was achieved.