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Content archived on 2024-05-29

The role of gesture speech synchronisation in interaction and cognition

Objective

The main objective of the proposed project is to provide a comprehensive account of gesture-speechsynchronisation in conversational interaction in order to test and extend the scope of existing theories of gesture-speech production. The current theories base their claims on the observation that gesture and speech aretemporally and semantically co-ordinated. This co-ordination is seen as a manifestation of linked cognitiveprocesses underlying speech and gesture production. However, studies conducted within these frameworkssuffer from methodological insufficiencies that call the generalisability of the temporal alignment observationsinto question. Furthermore, despite existing evidence that interactional factors influence gestural behaviour, anddespite the fact that current theories assume that gestures reflect communicative intent, the possible influence ofinteractional factors is not addressed. Given that face-to-face exchanges are the dominant mode ofcommunication, any cognitive theory of gesture-speech production that neglects this dimension is fundamentallyincomplete. The proposed project will expand existing theories in two ways. First, it will provide detailed temporaldata for speech and gesture alignment, covering a range of gesture types, thereby extending thephenomenological scope. Second, the analyses will be based on data elicited from well-controlled interactionaltasks, thereby introducing the interactional dimension of communication. Finally, it will apply a unified andsystematic quantitative analysis to the compiled corpus, introducing a new level of rigor to the field. In sum, theproject will contribute to a unified cognitive processing account of multimodal mechanisms employed in everydayconversation, thereby broadening the scope of the field of psycholinguistics. The proposed project uses motioncapture technology to forge a new paradigm that will provide researchers with a powerful microscope.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP6-2002-MOBILITY-6
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

OIF - Marie Curie actions-Outgoing International Fellowships

Coordinator

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFT VERTRETEN DURCH DAS MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FUER PSYCHOLINGUISTIK
EU contribution
No data
Address
WUNDTLAAN 1
NIJMEGEN
Netherlands
Total cost
No data