Manual gestures and gaze direction help coordinate transitions in human conversation
In short: Researchers analyzing a corpus of face-to-face interactions found that human turn-taking relies on more than just spoken words. Using eye-trackers and multiple cameras, the study observed that while gaze direction does not change the speed of speaker transitions, the use of manual gestures is associated with faster transitions between speakers.
The study found that transitions are often inhibited when a speaker averts their gaze or leaves a gesture unfinished at a point where a turn could end. This suggests that the cues signaling when it is someone else's turn are multimodal, involving both linguistic and visual signals.
The researchers used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the recorded interactions, though the findings are based on a specific corpus of multimodal interaction.
Why it matters: Conversation is a multimodal process where visual cues like gestures help coordinate the timing of speaker changes.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Research: Kendrick et al. (2023). Turn-taking in human face-to-face interaction is multimodal: gaze direction and manual gestures aid the coordination of turn transitions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences.
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