Acts of Assistance

A framework for designing human-machine interactions in cognitive assistive systems, drawing on speech acts theory from linguistics. Each act of assistance is a structured communication from the system to the user, defined by its message type (such as recall, indicate, or guide), content, sender, receiver, temporality, and expected feedback. The framework operates at two levels: procedural acts that guide a person step-by-step through an entire activity, and punctual acts that address specific difficulties as they arise. This approach ensures that assistive prompts are contextually appropriate, delivered at the right time, and matched to the type of cognitive difficulty the person is experiencing.