Context enhancement for co-intentionality and co-reference

[van der Pol et al., 2004] van der Pol, J., Admiraal, W., and Simons, P. R. J. (2004). Context enhancement for co-intentionality and co-reference in asynchronous cmc.
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The author defines two different process that contribute to the collaborative annotations of text and that reflect in the learning process: co-intentionality and co-reference. The former refer to the attempt to maintain a shared set of intentions while communcating (e.g., stay in the same thread providing answers on the same subject). The latter refer to the attempt to maintain a shared frame of reference (e.g., the ability to take reciprocal perspectives). An interesting idea I found is therefore that a shared context then does not always and automatically provide participants in communication the means to reach sufficient levels of co-reference and co-intentionality.

Subsequently, the author provides list some of the mechanism that may affect grounding, in relation to co-reference and co-intentionality, to provide the least collaborative effort. He introduce a critic to Clark’s model developed by Koschmann, who views communication essentially as an active and continuos process of grounding. In Koschman view, using common ground is not a logical or mathematical process of deduction and the success of the operation cannot be taken for granted. I personally refer to this effect as ‘false grounding’.

Another effect listed by the author is then the non-verbal communication that may influence the grounding process itself. For instance, when communicating about a certain topic, the availability of the object of the discussion in some sort of mediatic representation is reflecting on the communication itself and in particular, for the author, to the co-reference mechanism.

The author incorporate his findings into an Annotation System developed at the University of Utrecht.

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