The sharing of meanings of signals through limited media in two-player games

How can humans come to share the meaning of signals when only very limited media are available and there are no pre-defined meanings to signals? To answer the above question, we designed two-player games, which require the players' cooperation to play. The only communication means are to send color (hue) signals in one game, or monotonic sound signals in another. The player must assign a necessary meaning to an available signal, and send it to the partner. The partner must infer its meaning (sender's intention) and act cooperatively. Using these games, the process of sharing the meaning of signals is investigated, and some interesting common features are found. The process is based on mind-reading of the partner's intention, which is a key ability for any types of human communication. The mechanism is analyzed in the relevance theory framework. Our findings can be used for improving human-agent communication where no pre-defined languages are available.