Dialog Behaviors across Culture and Group Size

Abstract

Abstract. This study analyzes joint interaction behaviors of two-person and four-person standing conversations from three different cultures, American, Arab, and Mexican. To determine whether people use joint interaction behaviors differently in multiparty versus dyadic conversation, and how differences in culture affect this relationship, we examine differences in proxemics, speaker and listener gaze behaviors, and overlap and pause at turn transitions. Our analysis suggests that proxemics, gaze, and mutual gaze to coordinate turns change with group size and with culture. However, these changes do not always agree with predictions from the research literature. These unanticipated outcomes demonstrate the importance of collecting and analyzing joint interaction behaviors.

Inter-brain synchrony in teams predicts collective performance

“…For instance, compared to dyads, groups exhibit different patterns of non-verbal behaviors (e.g. eye gaze) and communication ( Solano and Dunnam, 1985 ; Herrera et al , 2011 ), as well as different motivations to trust and cooperate with others ( Zhou and Zhang, 2006 ; Wildschut and Insko, 2007 ; Pereda et al , 2019 ). Indeed, groups of four may be the optimal group size for everyday collaborations as it maintains individual responsibility and efficacy ( Kameda et al , 1992 ), while enhancing collective action on behalf of a shared group identity ( Baumeister et al , 2016 ).…”

Perceptually plausible formations for virtual conversers

“…The distance between individuals in a conversing group is an integral part of conversational behaviour and can affect other aspects of conversational style. Links have been found with the amount of conversational eye contact between them and different group sizes . Results from this study show that the distance between participants in a conversation decreased as the group went from a dyadic (two‐person) conversation to a multiparty conversation.…”

“…These observations merit further study. Because Herrera et al found that interpersonal distances change with group size, we also plan to evaluate whether the results for distance and orientation hold when they are applied in combination for different‐sized groups.…”

Grounding and Turn-Taking in Multimodal Multiparty Conversation

“…Finally, we note that discourse-analytic comparison of multiparty and dyadic conversation has indicated that differences as a function of the number of conversants vary across cultures [13]. Thus while the use of gaze to coordinate turn-transition differs between speakers of American English and of Mexican Spanish, for Americans this process is a function of group size: gaze plays a relatively smaller role in Mexican multiparty conversation than it does in American [13].…”

“…Finally, we note that discourse-analytic comparison of multiparty and dyadic conversation has indicated that differences as a function of the number of conversants vary across cultures [13]. Thus while the use of gaze to coordinate turn-transition differs between speakers of American English and of Mexican Spanish, for Americans this process is a function of group size: gaze plays a relatively smaller role in Mexican multiparty conversation than it does in American [13]. To explore the specific functional mechansisms for conversants' use of paralinguistic behaviors in multiparty conversation, in this study we oriented our study around four principle issues: whether grounding behaviors such as nodding get cued in ways similar to those observed in dyadic conversation, how the mechanisms of turn-transitions actually function, whether the presence of an artifact leads to changes in grounding behaviors, and how, if at all, these behaviors differ between speakers of American English and of Mexican Spanish.…”