Recommendation dialogue system through pragmatic argumentation

Abstract

In an ageing society, we expect that a robotic caregiver is able to persuade the elderly to perform a healthier behavior. In this work, pragmatic argument is adopted to make the elderly realize that a choice beneficial for health is really worthwhile, such as eating suitable fruits. Based on this concept, an adaptive recommendation dialogue system through pragmatic argumentation is proposed. There are three objectives in this system. First, a knowledge base for pragmatic argument construction is built, which concerns not only the effect of a decision but also the reason for the effect. Secondly, the robot is endowed with the ability to do recommendation that adapts to different states of the elder, and the recommendation is determined based on the integration of both the robot's and the elder's preference for different perspectives so that the robot knows how to reach a compromise with the elder. Lastly, through learning about the elder's preference for perspectives in conversation, the robot will try to select such a perspective to construct arguments that the elder can be more easily convinced to accept its recommendation. We invited 21 volunteers to interact with the robot. The experimental result has proved that the recommendation system has potential to affect the decision making of the elderly and help him/her pursue a healthier life.