A system and method for determining a set of attributes to a communication includes a decision engine, a monitoring module, and application software. The decision engine receives communications and assigns a set of attributes to each received communication. Each communication and associated set of attributes is sent to the communication's corresponding application which processes the set of attributes for performing an action, such as display. The monitoring module monitors an item selected by the system user. The monitoring module may feed the selected item and associated communication back to the decision module. The decision engine may process the feedback on-line or in real-time. The decision module is a learning system that updates classification criteria using feedback. Classification scores associated with each set of attributes may represent an estimate of the statistical likelihood that each attribute is the proper response to the communication.