Processing language in face-to-face conversation: Questions with gestures get faster responses

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Science
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Face-to-face interaction relies on rapid turn-taking (approx. 200ms).
• Bodily signals accompany speech, posing questions about their role in time-pressured language processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether bodily signals facilitate or hinder language processing in real-time conversational exchanges.
• To analyze the influence of gestures on conversational turn-transition times.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of multimodal conversations.
• Examination of turn transition times in response to questions with and without accompanying gestures.
• Control for prosodic patterns and gaze.

Main Results:

• Questions with gestures resulted in significantly shorter turn transition times (faster responses).
• Responses were earlier when gestures concluded before the question turn ended.
• These effects persisted after accounting for prosody and gaze.

Conclusions:

• Bodily signals profoundly influence language processing during interaction.
• Gestures play a crucial role in facilitating rapid conversational exchanges.
• This study offers initial insights into the psycholinguistic function of the body in human communication.