This paper explores entrainment of two speaking styles, shouting and hyperarticulation, in an information-driven spoken dialog system. Both styles present difficulties for automatic speech recognition. We describe and evaluate the system's detection and reaction mechanisms for these speaking styles, which involve deploying appropriate dialog-level strategies. The three strategies tested do induce style change more effectively than the baseline of no strategy. This can translate into both better recognition and a higher chance of task success. Shouting is found to be more amenable to modification than hyperarticulation and the effect of the former on system performance is more profound.

Index Terms: spoken dialog, entrainment