Conversational timing suggests we predict when others will stop speaking
In short: Researchers reviewing decades of behavioral data and experimental studies found that human turn-taking follows highly systematic patterns. They observed that the gaps between speakers in a conversation are often as short as 200 milliseconds, which is significantly faster than the time required to actually produce a linguistic response.
This timing mismatch suggests that participants in a conversation must actively predict the end of a speaker's turn to prepare their own response in advance. By synthesizing existing literature and applying new statistical analyses to behavioral data, the authors highlight how this predictive process likely involves an overlap between comprehending speech and preparing to speak.
Why it matters: We don't just wait for our turn; our brains likely predict when a speaker will finish to stay in sync.
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Sources
- Source: Research: Levinson and Torreira (2015). Timing in turn-taking and its implications for processing models of language. Frontiers in Psychology. · cc-by
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