Comparing thin slices of verbal communication behavior of varying number and duration

The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of thin slices to characterize the verbal communication behavior of counselors and patients engaged in Motivational Interviewing sessions relative to fully coded sessions.

Four thin slice samples that varied in number (four versus six slices) and duration (one- versus two-minutes) were extracted from a previously coded dataset. In the parent study, an observational code scheme was used to characterize specific counselor and patient verbal communication behaviors. For the current study, we compared the frequency of communication codes and the correlations among the full dataset and each thin slice sample.

Both the proportion of communication codes and strength of the correlation demonstrated the highest degree of accuracy when a greater number (i.e., six versus four) and duration (i.e., two- versus one-minute) of slices were extracted.

These results suggest that thin slice sampling may be a useful and accurate strategy to reduce coding burden when coding specific verbal communication behaviors within clinical encounters.

We suggest researchers interested in using thin slice sampling in their own work conduct preliminary research to determine the number and duration of thin slices required to accurately characterize the behaviors of interest.