Making oneself predictable in linguistic interactions.

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Science
• Human Interaction

Background:

• Conversational partners exhibit precise turn-taking coordination.
• Listeners predict upcoming speech to prepare responses.
• The role of speakers in facilitating this coordination is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if speakers actively facilitate conversational coordination.
• To test the hypothesis that speakers use coordination smoothers by increasing predictability.
• To examine the impact of interaction on the timing and predictability of language production.

Main Methods:

• Participants typed word definitions individually or collaboratively.
• Turn initiation timing was measured for interacting and solo speakers.
• Post-test participants predicted definition endpoints and rated quality.

Main Results:

• Interacting speakers showed reduced variability in turn initiation delays compared to solo speakers.
• Jointly produced definitions were initially perceived as less predictable and lower quality.
• Task difficulty confounded post-test predictability and quality ratings.

Conclusions:

• Reduced temporal variability in interacting speakers may serve as a coordination smoother.
• Speakers might contribute to conversational flow through temporal adjustments.
• Further research is needed to disentangle task difficulty from interaction effects on predictability.