www.christinehowes.com
I have been awarded an ERC starting grant, DivCon, starting 2023 and am currently working on two research projects, IncReD and DRiPS. A brief description is below; more details are available on the respective project pages.

Human interaction is deceptively simple to engage in, yet surprisingly challenging to account for theoretically.  Existing theories of language and cognition cannot fully account for the complex dynamics of verbal and non-verbal behaviours in interaction, which is becoming even more apparent with our increasing use of computer-mediated communication, such as the currently ubiquitous Zoom calls.

With my ERC starting grant DivCon, my vision is to transform our basic understanding of human interaction by showing how successful dialogue is driven by incremental, local and dynamic processes of mismatch management.

ERC-2022-STG 101077927

This project addresses key issues in dialogue research. Using experimental, corpus and formal methods, we will study why-questions, and what happens when people disagree about the unspoken reasons underlying what they say. This is also relevant for AI systems such as artificial companions for the elderly.

Projektet tar sig an grundläggande frågor i dialogforskningen. Vi kommer att studera vad som händer när talare är oense om de outtalade premisser som deras argument bygger på. Detta innebär bl a att vi undersöker olika typer av frågor. Detta är även relevant för AI, t  ex sådan tänkt att hjälpa gamla och sjuka i hemmet. 

PI: Christine Howes; with Ellen Breitholtz, Robin Cooper: VR 2016-0116

It is well known that people with schizophrenia often reason in a way that is perceived as deviant.  However, research in this area has mainly focused on individuals' problem solving abilities in reasoning tasks. Few studies have examined how people with schizophrenia reason and solve problems in an interactive context. This project aims to investigate how people with schizophrenia reason in dialogue, based on how they argue. Our research will hopefully not only contribute to the development of new treatments, but also the development of methods for dialogue modelling.

Det är väl belagt att personer som lider av schizofreni ofta resonerar på ett sätt som uppfattas som avvikande. Forskning på området har dock främst gällt hur försökspersoner enskilt löser olika typer av uppgifter som inbegriper resonerande.
– Men få studier har undersökt hur personer med schizofreni resonerar och löser uppgifter i en interaktiv kontext. Detta projekt syftar till att undersöka hur personer med schizofreni resonerar i dialog, med utgångspunkt i hur de argumenterar. Vår forskning kommer förhoppningsvis inte bara att bidra till utveckling av nya behandlingsformer, utan också en utveckling av metoder för dialogmodellering.

PI: Ellen Breitholtz; with Christine Howes, Mary Lavelle, Robin Cooper. Riksbankens jubileumsfond, P16-0805:1