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A Methodology for Capturing Joint Visual Attention Using Mobile Eye-Trackers
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Unaddressed participants' gaze in multi-person interaction: optimizing recipiency
Judith Holler1, Kobin H Kendrick1
1Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Frontiers in Psychology
|February 25, 2015
Summary
Unaddressed participants in conversations anticipate upcoming turns by shifting gaze before the current speaker finishes. This gaze shift timing appears interactionally optimal for observing communication cues.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Human communication relies on intricate turn-taking systems.
- Understanding turn-taking involves processing ongoing speech while planning the next utterance.
- Previous research explored gaze patterns in passive observation of dialogues.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate on-line processing of conversational turn-taking.
- To examine how unaddressed participants anticipate upcoming turns in spontaneous conversation.
- To analyze the timing and organizational principles of gaze shifts during dialogue.
Main Methods:
- Utilized eye-tracking technology in spontaneous, face-to-face conversations.
- Focused on question-response sequences among three native English speakers.
- Analyzed temporal gaze shifts of unaddressed participants between speakers.
Main Results:
- Unaddressed participants anticipate next turns by shifting gaze before the current turn ends.
- Gaze shift planning coincides with points where turns become recognizable as potentially complete.
- Eye movement timing reflects an organizational principle for optimal interactional awareness.
Conclusions:
- Unaddressed participants actively predict conversational flow.
- Gaze shifts are timed to maximize visual and bodily cues from both current and next speakers.
- This behavior demonstrates a sophisticated mechanism for displaying recipiency and engagement in conversation.
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