Reciprocity in Instant Messaging Conversations

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092110250
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Guydish ◽  
Jean E. Fox Tree

We tested how the introduction and removal of well-defined roles influenced contribution behaviors in instant messaging conversations. Pairs of participants worked on a referential communication task where one participant (the director) had more information than the other (the matcher). Next, these roles were removed and the participants were allowed to communicate freely. Participants then switched director/matcher roles and the procedure was repeated. On average participants in the director role wrote more than participants in the matcher role during the task. But instead of a balanced conversation during unstructured chat, which might have happened without a task preceding it, during off-task conversation former-matchers, on average, contributed more than former-directors. Results support the hypothesis that speech complementarity leads to efforts to redress imbalance, a process we call reciprocity.

1986 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Holdgrafer ◽  
Thomas F. Campbell

ABSTRACTTwo prerecorded productions of the “What's this?” question were presented to Grade 2, 4, and 6 children and to adults over a series of trials in a referential communication task. One production contained emphatic stress on the word “this” and the other production contained equal stress on both words. For each question presentation the experimenter selected a colored picture of an object from a deck that was the match to one of two picture choices in view of the subjects. The students guessed on successive presentations whether a different picture (new topic collaboration) or the same picture (old topic collaboration) had been selected based on the presence or absence of emphatic stress in the questions. No feedback was given to the students throughout the experimental procedure. Use of intonation as a marker for topic collaboration appeared by Grade 4, which is in support of other similar research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1299-1311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Beechey ◽  
Jörg M. Buchholz ◽  
Gitte Keidser

Objectives This study investigates the hypothesis that hearing aid amplification reduces effort within conversation for both hearing aid wearers and their communication partners. Levels of effort, in the form of speech production modifications, required to maintain successful spoken communication in a range of acoustic environments are compared to earlier reported results measured in unaided conversation conditions. Design Fifteen young adult normal-hearing participants and 15 older adult hearing-impaired participants were tested in pairs. Each pair consisted of one young normal-hearing participant and one older hearing-impaired participant. Hearing-impaired participants received directional hearing aid amplification, according to their audiogram, via a master hearing aid with gain provided according to the NAL-NL2 fitting formula. Pairs of participants were required to take part in naturalistic conversations through the use of a referential communication task. Each pair took part in five conversations, each of 5-min duration. During each conversation, participants were exposed to one of five different realistic acoustic environments presented through highly open headphones. The ordering of acoustic environments across experimental blocks was pseudorandomized. Resulting recordings of conversational speech were analyzed to determine the magnitude of speech modifications, in terms of vocal level and spectrum, produced by normal-hearing talkers as a function of both acoustic environment and the degree of high-frequency average hearing impairment of their conversation partner. Results The magnitude of spectral modifications of speech produced by normal-hearing talkers during conversations with aided hearing-impaired interlocutors was smaller than the speech modifications observed during conversations between the same pairs of participants in the absence of hearing aid amplification. Conclusions The provision of hearing aid amplification reduces the effort required to maintain communication in adverse conditions. This reduction in effort provides benefit to hearing-impaired individuals and also to the conversation partners of hearing-impaired individuals. By considering the impact of amplification on both sides of dyadic conversations, this approach contributes to an increased understanding of the likely impact of hearing impairment on everyday communication.


Author(s):  
Eun Jin Paek ◽  
Si On Yoon

Purpose Speakers adjust referential expressions to the listeners' knowledge while communicating, a phenomenon called “audience design.” While individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show difficulties in discourse production, it is unclear whether they exhibit preserved partner-specific audience design. The current study examined if individuals with AD demonstrate partner-specific audience design skills. Method Ten adults with mild-to-moderate AD and 12 healthy older adults performed a referential communication task with two experimenters (E1 and E2). At first, E1 and participants completed an image-sorting task, allowing them to establish shared labels. Then, during testing, both experimenters were present in the room, and participants described images to either E1 or E2 (randomly alternating). Analyses focused on the number of words participants used to describe each image and whether they reused shared labels. Results During testing, participants in both groups produced shorter descriptions when describing familiar images versus new images, demonstrating their ability to learn novel knowledge. When they described familiar images, healthy older adults modified their expressions depending on the current partner's knowledge, producing shorter expressions and more established labels for the knowledgeable partner (E1) versus the naïve partner (E2), but individuals with AD were less likely to do so. Conclusions The current study revealed that both individuals with AD and the control participants were able to acquire novel knowledge, but individuals with AD tended not to flexibly adjust expressions depending on the partner's knowledge state. Conversational inefficiency and difficulties observed in AD may, in part, stem from disrupted audience design skills.


Author(s):  
Rajan Gupta ◽  
Saibal Kumar Pal

ICT is a powerful tool which can be used by both India and Canada to harness the growth and development in the respective regions. Researchers and practitioners can come together from Indo-Canadian communities and take the association to a more meaningful level. The current research discusses the ICT tools that can be adopted from Canada by India to improve the education quality and knowledge transmission. On the other hand, Canada government can make efforts to enhance knowledge transfer and translation through ICT by adopting tools like best practices repository, communities of practice, corporate intranet/extranet, corporate yellow pages, expertise locator, online chat/instant messaging, knowledge portals, groupware-workflow and tracking system, and document/content management that are already used in India. ICT has the potential to develop the country politically, socially, and economically.


1980 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mavis Donahue ◽  
Ruth Pearl ◽  
Tanis Bryan

ABSTRACTThis study examined learning disabled children's understanding of conversational rules for initiating the repair of a communicative breakdown. Learning disabled and normal children in grades 1 through 8 played the listener role in a referential communication task requiring them to select referents based on messages varying in informational adequacy. Learning disabled children were less likely to request clarification of inadequate messages and, consequently, made fewer correct referent choices than normal children. Only young learning disabled girls were less able than their normal age-mates to appraise message adequacy. Analyses of response latencies and request type also suggest that the failure to request clarification cannot be attributed solely to linguistic deficits. Results are discussed in terms of the relative contributions of syntactic-semantic ability and social knowledge to conversational competence.


2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 1121-1134 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH S. NILSEN ◽  
LEILANI MANGAL

ABSTRACTThree- and four-year-olds participated in a referential communication task wherein they requested stickers from a knowledgeable or ignorant adult to complete a card. Following inadequate initial requests children were provided with three different feedback types: goal substitution (i.e. an incorrect sticker was provided), explicit statement of misunderstanding (‘I don't know which one you mean’), and vague feedback (‘Huh?’). Preschoolers' initial statements revealed sensitivity to the listener's perspective: more descriptors were provided when the listener did not have visual access to the card. Although listener's knowledge did not affect children's repair statements following feedback, the feedback type did: goal substitution elicited more repairs that included new descriptors, whereas vague responses elicited more repetition of initial requests than other feedback types. Children's age and verbal skills were related to the specific repair strategies used. Results demonstrate that preschoolers' use of cues from a conversational partner depends on the type of communicative task.


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