A Map Following Dialogue

This page gives access to the DMT analysis of one dialogue, described in the table at the bottom of the page. Click on items to view the analysis.

Situation: In a laboratory at University of Edinburgh, pairs of participants work on a task in which one tries to draw a line on a map of a small region, attempting to match a line on another (unseen) map held by the other participant. They talk to each other until it seems that the desired line has been drawn. The duration and language of the task are unrestricted.

Participants: There are two participants, the Giver (of directions) and the Follower.

Acknowledgment: The dialogues were provided through the Maptask Project. Extensive description of the project, its methods of analysis, and an interactive demonstration of the system, can be accessed at the project site.

Web Access to the Source: The dialogues can be viewed at the site above, but they are not downloadable files. The XLS file reachable below is the simplest access to it. However, details of the dialogue, including overlap and timing, do not appear here.

Features of this and companion dialogues: This and other Maptask dialogues are unusual in the degree to which the participants show collaboration. Even though only one participant has the task of drawing the line on his map, they blend their efforts in a way that is seldom seen. This suggests that the dialogues may not be representative, but also that they may be particularly good models for the development of human computer interfaces.

Symbol	PDF file	Transcript and Symbolic Analysis in Spreadsheet for download and manipulation
MAPq2nc2	Click for pdf.	Click for spreadsheet.

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