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.