Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Examining Gesture Production in the Presence of Communication Challenges
Published on: January 26, 2024
Verbal interaction analysis: viewing feedback through a different lens
Benjamin Blatt1, Sharon Confessore, Gene Kallenberg
1Department of Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA. msdbcb@gwumc.edu
Background:
Verbal interaction analysis, though seldom applied to the feedback-giving process, can be used to assess feedback dimensions not easily assessed by other means.
Description:
The purpose of this study was to explore verbal interaction analysis as a method to assess feedback interactions between senior medical students trained as teachers and their sophomore learners. We randomly selected 14 videotaped encounters of senior teachers giving feedback to sophomore learners and classified 417 utterances to address (a) verbal dominance, (b) feedback balance, and (c) cognitive level.
Evaluation:
Teachers did most of the talking (65.2%). Although some feedback was corrective (20.6%), teacher utterances were mostly positive (33.5%) or neutral (45.9%). Cognitively, the teacher utterances occurred largely at the factual (lowest) level (74.3%).
Conclusions:
Interaction analysis enabled us to describe 3 dimensions of teacher-learner feedback not easily assessed by other means: verbal dominance, positive-corrective balance, and cognitive level. Assessing these dimensions provides information about two theoretically important indices of feedback-giving effectiveness: learner involvement and feedback balance. Future study of verbal interaction analysis in this and other populations is warranted to further evaluate its usefulness.
Related Concept Videos
Negative and Positive Feedback
Communication
Within...
Effects of feedback
Feedback significantly modifies the gain of a control system. The gain of a system without feedback is altered by a factor of one plus GH, where G represents...
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Non-Verbal Cues

