Speaking and Listening with the Eyes: Gaze Signaling during Dyadic Interactions

Abstract

Cognitive scientists have long been interested in the role that eye gaze plays in social interactions. Previous research suggests that gaze acts as a signaling mechanism and can be used to control turn-taking behaviour. However, early research on this topic employed methods of analysis that aggregated gaze information across an entire trial (or trials), which masks any temporal dynamics that may exist in social interactions. More recently, attempts have been made to understand the temporal characteristics of social gaze but little research has been conducted in a natural setting with two interacting participants. The present study combines a temporally sensitive analysis technique with modern eye tracking technology to 1) validate the overall results from earlier aggregated analyses and 2) provide insight into the specific moment-to-moment temporal characteristics of turn-taking behaviour in a natural setting. Dyads played two social guessing games (20 Questions and Heads Up) while their eyes were tracked. Our general results are in line with past aggregated data, and using cross-correlational analysis on the specific gaze and speech signals of both participants we found that 1) speakers end their turn with direct gaze at the listener and 2) the listener in turn begins to speak with averted gaze. Convergent with theoretical models of social interaction, our data suggest that eye gaze can be used to signal both the end and the beginning of a speaking turn during a social interaction. The present study offers insight into the temporal dynamics of live dyadic interactions and also provides a new method of analysis for eye gaze data when temporal relationships are of interest.

Anticipation in Human-Robot Cooperation: A Recurrent Neural Network Approach for Multiple Action Sequences Prediction

“…This paper takes into account two of them: gaze and body posture. Gaze is important, as it has both a role in social communication in conveying turn taking behaviour [10] or attention in conversation, but at the same time it is deeply related to the agent's Theory of Mind [11] about the collaboration partner and codifies the action goals through both visuo-motor coupling [12] and attention [9]. Body posture, similarly to gaze, can serve both a social and intention conveying signal while also indicating possible action targets.…”

Toward Early Markers for Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Eye Tracking

“…From this, Jarick & Kingstone (2015) conclude, in accordance with , that "... when looking at the eyes of a real person one both acquires and signals information to the other person" (p. 7). This is corroborated by Ho, Foulsham, & Kingstone (2015), who reported that the eyes can signal the beginning and end of one's turn in conversation. While Jarick & Kingstone (2015) demonstrate a striking di↵erence in behavior after just a short competitive or cooperative game, we were left with a number of questions.…”

“…Finally, we examined the interplay of gaze behavior between the two partners more closely. Such an approach is similar to Ho et al (2015), who investigated gaze as a means to start and end periods of talking. One example we report is that duos may either show a positive or inverse relation in gaze behavior as a function of time.…”

“…Future research may focus on uncovering the precise dynamics of gaze behavior in social interactions. One approach would be to develop tools similar to those used by Ho et al (2015). In their study, they used cross-correlational analysis to quantify the relation between gaze and periods of talking.…”

Adaptors and the turn-taking mechanism

“…This finding has been corroborated by generations of successive studies (Duncan and Niederehe, 1974;Duncan and Fiske, 1977;8 Goodwin, 1980;Lerner, 2003) together with the recent research using the eye-tracking technology (see e.g. Ho et al, 2015or Gambi et al 2015; for criticism of this line of research see Rossano, 2013). Certain facial expressions were linked to turn-transitions, such as the stereotyped [a]-face described as a turn-entry signal emitted by the listener (Streeck and Hartge, 1992), the configuration of which could result from the pre-breath activity (cf.…”