Cargando…
Conversation in small groups: Speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group
Many conversations in our day-to-day lives are held in noisy environments – impeding comprehension, and in groups – taxing auditory attention-switching processes. These situations are particularly challenging for older adults in cognitive and sensory decline. In noisy environments, a variety of extr...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer US
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8062389/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33051825 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01821-9 |
_version_ | 1783681752544313344 |
---|---|
author | Hadley, Lauren V. Whitmer, William M. Brimijoin, W. Owen Naylor, Graham |
author_facet | Hadley, Lauren V. Whitmer, William M. Brimijoin, W. Owen Naylor, Graham |
author_sort | Hadley, Lauren V. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Many conversations in our day-to-day lives are held in noisy environments – impeding comprehension, and in groups – taxing auditory attention-switching processes. These situations are particularly challenging for older adults in cognitive and sensory decline. In noisy environments, a variety of extra-linguistic strategies are available to speakers and listeners to facilitate communication, but while models of language account for the impact of context on word choice, there has been little consideration of the impact of context on extra-linguistic behaviour. To address this issue, we investigate how the complexity of the acoustic environment and interaction situation impacts extra-linguistic conversation behaviour of older adults during face-to-face conversations. Specifically, we test whether the use of intelligibility-optimising strategies increases with complexity of the background noise (from quiet to loud, and in speech-shaped vs. babble noise), and with complexity of the conversing group (dyad vs. triad). While some communication strategies are enhanced in more complex background noise, with listeners orienting to talkers more optimally and moving closer to their partner in babble than speech-shaped noise, this is not the case with all strategies, as we find greater vocal level increases in the less complex speech-shaped noise condition. Other behaviours are enhanced in the more complex interaction situation, with listeners using more optimal head orientations, and taking longer turns when gaining the floor in triads compared to dyads. This study elucidates how different features of the conversation context impact individuals’ communication strategies, which is necessary to both develop a comprehensive cognitive model of multimodal conversation behaviour, and effectively support individuals that struggle conversing. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8062389 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Springer US |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80623892021-05-05 Conversation in small groups: Speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group Hadley, Lauren V. Whitmer, William M. Brimijoin, W. Owen Naylor, Graham Psychon Bull Rev Brief Report Many conversations in our day-to-day lives are held in noisy environments – impeding comprehension, and in groups – taxing auditory attention-switching processes. These situations are particularly challenging for older adults in cognitive and sensory decline. In noisy environments, a variety of extra-linguistic strategies are available to speakers and listeners to facilitate communication, but while models of language account for the impact of context on word choice, there has been little consideration of the impact of context on extra-linguistic behaviour. To address this issue, we investigate how the complexity of the acoustic environment and interaction situation impacts extra-linguistic conversation behaviour of older adults during face-to-face conversations. Specifically, we test whether the use of intelligibility-optimising strategies increases with complexity of the background noise (from quiet to loud, and in speech-shaped vs. babble noise), and with complexity of the conversing group (dyad vs. triad). While some communication strategies are enhanced in more complex background noise, with listeners orienting to talkers more optimally and moving closer to their partner in babble than speech-shaped noise, this is not the case with all strategies, as we find greater vocal level increases in the less complex speech-shaped noise condition. Other behaviours are enhanced in the more complex interaction situation, with listeners using more optimal head orientations, and taking longer turns when gaining the floor in triads compared to dyads. This study elucidates how different features of the conversation context impact individuals’ communication strategies, which is necessary to both develop a comprehensive cognitive model of multimodal conversation behaviour, and effectively support individuals that struggle conversing. Springer US 2020-10-13 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8062389/ /pubmed/33051825 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01821-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Brief Report Hadley, Lauren V. Whitmer, William M. Brimijoin, W. Owen Naylor, Graham Conversation in small groups: Speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group |
title | Conversation in small groups: Speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group |
title_full | Conversation in small groups: Speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group |
title_fullStr | Conversation in small groups: Speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group |
title_full_unstemmed | Conversation in small groups: Speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group |
title_short | Conversation in small groups: Speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group |
title_sort | conversation in small groups: speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group |
topic | Brief Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8062389/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33051825 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01821-9 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT hadleylaurenv conversationinsmallgroupsspeakingandlisteningstrategiesdependonthecomplexitiesoftheenvironmentandgroup AT whitmerwilliamm conversationinsmallgroupsspeakingandlisteningstrategiesdependonthecomplexitiesoftheenvironmentandgroup AT brimijoinwowen conversationinsmallgroupsspeakingandlisteningstrategiesdependonthecomplexitiesoftheenvironmentandgroup AT naylorgraham conversationinsmallgroupsspeakingandlisteningstrategiesdependonthecomplexitiesoftheenvironmentandgroup |