Alignment in Communication

Cooperation and coordination in action and communication have been major research issues in the cognitive sciences and the study of artificial agents in recent years. Started in July 2006, the Bielefeld CRC 673 “Alignment in Communication” investigates special modes of coordination, called alignment. Alignment covers the adaptation processes among agents which are assumed to be subconscious in humans and which do not involve explicit negotiation and control by those engaged in a common enterprise. Alignment thus conceived can be observed in human-human communication with respect to a variety of linguistic and cognitive phenomena. At the same time, alignment in human-robot communication and human interface management may serve as one of the main assets in the construction of robots and virtual reality avatars that are better tailored to human needs.