Speech Planning at Turn Transitions in Dialog Is Associated With Increased Processing Load

Speech planning is a sophisticated process. In dialog, it regularly starts in overlap with an incoming turn by a conversation partner. We show that planning spoken responses in overlap with incoming turns is associated with higher processing load than planning in silence. In a dialogic experiment, participants took turns with a confederate describing lists of objects. The confederate’s utterances (to which participants responded) were pre‐recorded and varied in whether they ended in a verb or an object noun and whether this ending was predictable or not. We found that response planning in overlap with sentence‐final verbs evokes larger task‐evoked pupillary responses, while end predictability had no effect. This finding indicates that planning in overlap leads to higher processing load for next speakers in dialog and that next speakers do not proactively modulate the time course of their response planning based on their predictions of turn endings. The turn‐taking system exerts pressure on the language processing system by pushing speakers to plan in overlap despite the ensuing increase in processing load.     

Modification of impulse generation during piqué turns with increased rotational demands

During initiation of a piqué turn, a dancer generates impulse to achieve the desired lateral translation and whole-body rotation. The goal of this study was to determine how individuals regulate impulse generation when initiating piqué turns with increased rotational demands. Skilled dancers (n = 10) performed single (∼360°) and double (∼720°) piqué turns from a stationary position. Linear and angular impulse generated by the push and turn legs were quantified using ground reaction forces and compared across turn conditions as a group and within a dancer using probability-based statistical methods. The results indicate that as the rotation demands of the piqué turn increased, the net angular impulse generated increased whereas net lateral impulse decreased. Early during turn initiation, the free moment contributed to angular impulse generation. Later during turn initiation, horizontal reaction forces were controlled to generate angular impulse. As rotational demands increased, the moment applied increased primarily from redirection of the horizontal reaction force (RFh) at the push leg and a combination of RFh magnitude and moment arm increases at the turn leg. RFh at each leg were coordinated to limit unwanted net linear impulse. Knowledge of observed subject-specific mechanisms is important to inform the design of turning performance training tools.     

Talking Health With a Machine: How Does Message Interactivity Affect Attitudes and Cognitions?

By affording interactive communication and natural, human‐like conversations, can media tools affect the way we engage with content in human–machine interactions and influence our attitudes toward that content? A between‐subjects experiment (N = 172) examined the effects of two communication variables: (a) message‐interactivity and (b) conversational tone, in an online health information (Q&A) tool. Findings suggest that informal conversational tone lowers perceptions of relative susceptibility to health risks. Perceived contingency positively mediates the influence of message interactivity on individuals' health attitudes and behavioral intentions whereas perceived interactivity negatively mediates the relationships between these variables. These contrasting mediation effects are further explored via a phantom model analysis that tests two theoretically distinct paths, with implications for both theory and practice.