Abstract
Overlapping speech in conversations has been seen
as a signal of alignment between the conversation participants.
Moreover, researchers have suggested that the alignment increases
with the increasing degree of familiarity of the participants.
Similarly, synchronic body behaviors have been studied
especially in psychological studies. Determining to which extent
alignment of verbal and non-verbal behaviors takes place in conversations
in which a large amount of information is exchanged, is
important a) for understanding how humans communicate and
b) providing empirical based models for designing coginfocom
systems which interact and support humans in the process of
acquiring and sharing information.
The present pilot study contributes to this research aiming
to determine to what extent alignment of speech and facial
expressions occurs in twelve audio- and video-recorded Danish
first encounters and whether it increases when the participants
get more acquainted as suggested, at least for speech, in the
literature. Alignment of verbal and non verbal behaviors is
investigated by extracting overlapping spoken contributions and
facial expressions in the first encounters and comparing their
occurrences in the first and second half of the encounters.
The results of our study show that the participants align
both their speech and facial expressions frequently in the first
encounters. Furthermore, the results confirm the hypothesis that
alignment of speech increases during conversations. A similar
relation between familiarity and alignment of facial expressions
was not found in these data. Our results can indicate that
alignment of facial expressions is more immediate than alignment
of speech and thus it occurs independently of familiarity. This
would be in line with mirroring studies which show that infants
mirror facial expressions very early in their development.
as a signal of alignment between the conversation participants.
Moreover, researchers have suggested that the alignment increases
with the increasing degree of familiarity of the participants.
Similarly, synchronic body behaviors have been studied
especially in psychological studies. Determining to which extent
alignment of verbal and non-verbal behaviors takes place in conversations
in which a large amount of information is exchanged, is
important a) for understanding how humans communicate and
b) providing empirical based models for designing coginfocom
systems which interact and support humans in the process of
acquiring and sharing information.
The present pilot study contributes to this research aiming
to determine to what extent alignment of speech and facial
expressions occurs in twelve audio- and video-recorded Danish
first encounters and whether it increases when the participants
get more acquainted as suggested, at least for speech, in the
literature. Alignment of verbal and non verbal behaviors is
investigated by extracting overlapping spoken contributions and
facial expressions in the first encounters and comparing their
occurrences in the first and second half of the encounters.
The results of our study show that the participants align
both their speech and facial expressions frequently in the first
encounters. Furthermore, the results confirm the hypothesis that
alignment of speech increases during conversations. A similar
relation between familiarity and alignment of facial expressions
was not found in these data. Our results can indicate that
alignment of facial expressions is more immediate than alignment
of speech and thus it occurs independently of familiarity. This
would be in line with mirroring studies which show that infants
mirror facial expressions very early in their development.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceeedings of CogInfoCom 2014 • 5th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications |
| Publisher | IEEE Signal Processing Society |
| Publication date | 23 Jan 2014 |
| Pages | 185-190 |
| Publication status | Published - 23 Jan 2014 |