Felipe Othick
Stuart Jones
Reference Information
Title: Vocabulary Navigation Made Easier
Authors: Sonya Nikolova, Xiaojuan Ma, Marilyn Tremaine, and Perry Cook
When/Where: IUI 2010
Summary
This paper discussed creating a system that makes vocabulary navigation and word finding easier for those with lexical access disorders (links between words stored in a person's memory are not always there, making it difficult to think words). Currently, many vocabulary systems are organized in hierarchies of categories of words. This means that to find a particular word, you must know which category or subcategory that it may be in. This paper detailed the Visual Vocabulary for Aphasia system (ViVA) that attempts to help make word searching easier for organizing words in a dynamic semantic network, with relations between words reflecting human associations and past vocabulary choices that work off of how the human mind organizes words. For this project, connections between words were gathered from a website that acts as a communication tool for people with the lexical access disorder of aphasia.
A preliminary user study was conducted using people with no lexical access disorders to assess the system. They were asked to find missing words within phrases using two different vocabularies, a hierarchy of words and ViVA using the same set of words just with provided associations. The results showed that ViVA took significantly less time and less clicks to find words, and all participants agreed that it was helpful and less confusing. The paper states that the next step would be an evaluation of the system with those with lexical access disorders for a conclusive evaluation.
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| ViVA in action during the user study. The top row displays related words. Source: Paper. |
I thought that this paper brought up a really interesting point by suggesting a way to better find words, especially for those that have impairments that make it difficult. While the evaluation did not involve those with the disorders mentioned, the authors recognized that it made the evaluation inconclusive but that the good performance of the system suggested that it could be even more helpful for those with disorders. Even though the evaluation of the system showed that it was useful for everyday people, I think that this paper's suggestion of designing systems to help those with disorders or impairments is a good idea to keep in mind for designing systems. Many people with impairments find it difficult to go through everyday life, so it seems like technology could be used to help them improve everyday tasks that are currently difficult.
I'm surprised that searching with images was faster than with just words for those without the disorder. I would have figured it would be the opposite, just because it doesn't seem to be something with which we are accustomed, i.e. we're used to working with words because we do it quite frequently. I guess it confirms the importance of visualization in human beings.
ReplyDeleteMichael, it may depend on which words. You'd have to know which ones were in the study, because while some can be easily linked to pictures others may be less tangible and do better with a word hierarchy. Also, which words map to which pictures may have a cultural connotation that just the words would not, making the W.H. more general.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this type of software could also be used for people who are English Second Language speakers. For us, it is really common having a word we want to use, but can't quiet remember it.
ReplyDeleteI think this would be great for finding other words to describe something. This would be interesting to try out.
ReplyDelete