Project A05 will be represented at the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) 2026 in Kyoto, Japan, with a paper by Amit Singh, Sinem Görmez, Britta Wrede and Katharina J. Rohlfing titled “A Divergence Model of Scaffolding in Dialogue via Negation.”
The study explores how people build shared understanding during conversation. Often in interaction, two people may begin to understand a task in slightly different ways. The paper shows that negation, for example, by clearly stating what something is not, can help make these differences visible and guide the conversation back in the right direction.
The findings further suggest that negation plays an important role in scaffolding, a process through which people support each other in gradually building understanding step by step. By highlighting the constructive role of disagreement and correction, the study opens up new perspectives on how dialogue enables learning and coordination.
Amit Singh will also present the findings in a poster session.
Publication:
Singh, A., Görmez, S., Wrede, B. & Rohlfing, K. (in press). A Divergence Model of Scaffolding in Dialogue via Negation. Proceedings of the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL), Kyoto, Japan, September 15–18, 2026.