Eye Contact Marks The Rise And Fall of Shared Attention in Conversation

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.31234/osf.io/npk75 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sophie Wohltjen ◽

Thalia Wheatley

Keyword(s):

Social Bonds ◽

Eye Contact ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

Shared Attention ◽

Natural Conversation ◽

Shared Narrative

Conversation is the platform where minds meet —the venue where information is shared, ideas co-created, cultural norms shaped, and social bonds forged. Its frequency and ease belie its complexity. Every conversation weaves a unique shared narrative from the contributions of independent minds, requiring partners to flexibly move into and out of alignment as needed for conversation to both cohere and evolve. How two minds achieve this coordination is poorly understood. Here we test whether eye contact, a common feature of conversation, predicts this coordination by measuring dyadic pupillary synchrony (a corollary of shared attention) during natural conversation. We find that eye contact is positively correlated with synchrony as well as ratings of engagement by conversation partners. However, rather than elicit synchrony, eye contact commences as synchrony peaks and predicts its immediate and subsequent decline until eye contact breaks. This relationship suggests that eye contact signals when shared attention is high. Further, we speculate that eye contact may play a corrective role in disrupting shared attention (reducing synchrony) as needed to facilitate independent contributions to conversation.

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Eye contact marks the rise and fall of shared attention in conversation

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2106645118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (37) ◽

pp. e2106645118

Author(s):

Sophie Wohltjen ◽

Thalia Wheatley

Keyword(s):

Social Bonds ◽

Eye Contact ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

Shared Attention ◽

Natural Conversation ◽

Shared Narrative

Conversation is the platform where minds meet: the venue where information is shared, ideas cocreated, cultural norms shaped, and social bonds forged. Its frequency and ease belie its complexity. Every conversation weaves a unique shared narrative from the contributions of independent minds, requiring partners to flexibly move into and out of alignment as needed for conversation to both cohere and evolve. How two minds achieve this coordination is poorly understood. Here we test whether eye contact, a common feature of conversation, predicts this coordination by measuring dyadic pupillary synchrony (a corollary of shared attention) during natural conversation. We find that eye contact is positively correlated with synchrony as well as ratings of engagement by conversation partners. However, rather than elicit synchrony, eye contact commences as synchrony peaks and predicts its immediate and subsequent decline until eye contact breaks. This relationship suggests that eye contact signals when shared attention is high. Furthermore, we speculate that eye contact may play a corrective role in disrupting shared attention (reducing synchrony) as needed to facilitate independent contributions to conversation.

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Cultural background modulates how we look at other persons’ gaze

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/0165025412465360 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 131-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Atsushi Senju ◽

Angélina Vernetti ◽

Yukiko Kikuchi ◽

Hironori Akechi ◽

Toshikazu Hasegawa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Eye Contact ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

Gaze Shift ◽

Gaze Aversion ◽

The Gaze ◽

Eye Fixations ◽

Japanese Adults ◽

Face Scanning

The current study investigated the role of cultural norms on the development of face-scanning. British and Japanese adults’ eye movements were recorded while they observed avatar faces moving their mouth, and then their eyes toward or away from the participants. British participants fixated more on the mouth, which contrasts with Japanese participants fixating mainly on the eyes. Moreover, eye fixations of British participants were less affected by the gaze shift of the avatar than Japanese participants, who shifted their fixation to the corresponding direction of the avatar’s gaze. Results are consistent with the Western cultural norms that value the maintenance of eye contact, and the Eastern cultural norms that require flexible use of eye contact and gaze aversion.

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Intermedial cognitive semiotics

Review of Cognitive Linguistics ◽

10.1075/rcl.11.2.11lop ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 388-401

Author(s):

Asunción López-Varela

Keyword(s):

Detailed Analysis ◽

Digital Communication ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Eye Contact ◽

Online Environment ◽

Shared Attention ◽

Interpersonal Factors ◽

Visual Cueing ◽

Task Oriented

In this chapter, intermediality is explored from an interdisciplinary perspective that uses neuroscience as well as cognitive-semiotic concerns and insights from online digital communication, presenting it as a process where biophysical, technological, and interpersonal factors interact. Shared attention as well as spatial and temporal cueing – eye contact and the sonic modality – are explored from a task-oriented and social interactive dimension. The spatiotemporal impact of the mediating context is highlighted by moving from the role of visual cueing, in a brief reference to Al Davison’s autobiographical graphic novel The spiral cage, to a more detailed analysis of Annie Abrahams’ (2010) online project A fragmented relation, where cueing is dependent not just on spatial frames but also on the temporal dynamics introduced by the aural dimension recorded in an online environment. The paper tangentially touches upon the role of affect in communication.

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A Pilot Study of Early Storybook Reading With Babies With Hearing Loss

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2019_jslhr-l-17-0305 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 62 (9) ◽

pp. 3397-3412

Author(s):

Michelle I. Brown ◽

David Trembath ◽

Marleen F. Westerveld ◽

Gail T. Gillon

Keyword(s):

Hearing Loss ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Visual Analysis ◽

Single Case ◽

Eye Contact ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Storybook Reading ◽

Book Selection ◽

Turn Taking ◽

Parent Child

Purpose This pilot study explored the effectiveness of an early storybook reading (ESR) intervention for parents with babies with hearing loss (HL) for improving (a) parents' book selection skills, (b) parent–child eye contact, and (c) parent–child turn-taking. Advancing research into ESR, this study examined whether the benefits from an ESR intervention reported for babies without HL were also observed in babies with HL. Method Four mother–baby dyads participated in a multiple baseline single-case experimental design across behaviors. Treatment effects for parents' book selection skills, parent–child eye contact, and parent–child turn-taking were examined using visual analysis and Tau-U analysis. Results Statistically significant increases, with large to very large effect sizes, were observed for all 4 participants for parent–child eye contact and parent–child turn-taking. Limited improvements with ceiling effects were observed for parents' book selection skills. Conclusion The findings provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of an ESR intervention for babies with HL for promoting parent–child interactions through eye contact and turn-taking.

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Reliability of the Conversational Interaction Coding Form When Applied to Natural Conversation of Individuals With Aphasia

Perspectives on Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders ◽

10.1044/nnsld20.4.125 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 125-135 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ashley Pozzolo Coote ◽

Jane Pimentel

Keyword(s):

Best Practice ◽

Interobserver Reliability ◽

Training Session ◽

Clinical Tool ◽

Group Setting ◽

Conversational Interaction ◽

Video Recordings ◽

Aphasia Therapy ◽

Natural Conversation ◽

Point To Point

Purpose: Development of valid and reliable outcome tools to document social approaches to aphasia therapy and to determine best practice is imperative. The aim of this study is to determine whether the Conversational Interaction Coding Form (CICF; Pimentel & Algeo, 2009) can be applied reliably to the natural conversation of individuals with aphasia in a group setting. Method: Eleven graduate students participated in this study. During a 90-minute training session, participants reviewed and practiced coding with the CICF. Then participants independently completed the CICF using video recordings of individuals with non-fluent and fluent aphasia participating in an aphasia group. Interobserver reliability was computed using matrices representative of the point-to-point agreement or disagreement between each participant's coding and the authors' coding for each measure. Interobserver reliability was defined as 80% or better agreement for each measure. Results: On the whole, the CICF was not applied reliably to the natural conversation of individuals with aphasia in a group setting. Conclusion: In an extensive review of the turns that had high disagreement across participants, the poor reliability was attributed to inadequate rules and definitions and inexperienced coders. Further research is needed to improve the reliability of this potentially useful clinical tool.

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