Conventions in human-human multi-threaded dialogues: a preliminary study

In this paper, we explore the conventions that people use in managing multiple dialogue threads. In particular, we focus on where in a thread people interrupt when switching to another thread. We find that some subjects are able to vary where they switch depending on how urgent the interrupting task is. When time-allowed, they switched at the end of a discourse segment, which we hypothesize is less disruptive to the interrupted task when it is later resumed. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User Interfaces—Natural Language General Terms Experimentation, Performance, Human Factors Keywords Multi-Tasking, Dialogue, Speech Interface

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: IUI
• Authors: Peter A. Heeman, Fan Yang, Andrew L. Kun, Alexander Shyrokov
• Keywords: Human Factors Keywords, IUI 2005, Multiple Dialogue Threads, Software Engineering, Thread People