Synchrony in Human-Bonobo Dialog

Abstract

Past research has suggested that bonobos have demonstrated capabilities of successful linguistic interaction with humans. A transcript of interactions linked to such claims is analyzed using methods that have been deployed to assess mutual understanding in human communication. Evidence of dialog plan maintenance on the part of the bonobo is visible, but not of understanding of the human dialog partners (nor vice versa, mostly).

Interaction of motion energy with gesture, extroversion, dominance, and collaboration in dialogue

“…Research on small-group interaction and group dynamics has recently focused on exploring both spoken words and nonverbal channels to develop methods that automatically analyse group interaction and models able to predict information about the participants as well as the state of the interaction, including collaboration assessments [3]- [5], but without analyzing the impact of gesture, for example, among nonverbal channels. Some have studied small collaborative learning groups, measuring the quality of collaboration using the group participants' movements and its correlation to the outcomes of the tasks at hand [6].…”