Communicative Success in Spatial Dialogue: The Impact of Functional Features and Dialogue Strategies

Abstract

This paper addresses the impact of dialogue strategies and functional features of spatial arrangements on communicative success. To examine the sharing of cognition between two minds in order to achieve a joint goal, we collected a corpus of 24 extended German-language dialogues in a referential communication task that involved furnishing a dolls’ house. Results show how successful communication, as evidenced by correct placement of furniture items, is affected by: (a) functionality of the furniture arrangement; (b) previous task experience; and (c) dialogue features such as description length and orientation information. To enhance research in this area, our ‘Dolldialogue’ corpus ( www.dolldialogue.space ) is now available as a free resource.