Project Details
Projekt
Visual Feedback in Dyadic Interaction: Cross-Linguistic, Cognitive, and Social Dynamics (FEEDBACK).
Applicant
Dr. Anastasia Bauer
Subject Area
General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 502013233
This project aims to systematically investigate the dynamics of visual feedback in spontaneous spoken and signed dyadic interactions, identifying factors that account for variation in feedback production. While previous research has highlighted the critical role of feedback in human interaction, particularly visual feedback still remains understudied. Our preliminary work has shown that visual feedback occurs far more frequently in human interaction than previously assumed. Despite its essential role, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing variation in feedback production. This project will explore how cross-linguistic and cross-modal differences, social-cognitive abilities, and familiarity between interlocutors shape visual feedback production. By examining a diverse range of spoken and signed languages, including those that are under-researched, the study will provide insights into the linguistic, cognitive, and social factors that influence feedback dynamics in human interaction. The research questions center on cross-linguistic differences in visual feedback, the impact of individual social-cognitive abilities, and the influence of familiarity between interlocutors on feedback patterns. The project incorporates existing corpora and collaborates with global researchers to examine a range of typologically diverse languages such as Russian, German, Bulgarian, Polish, Yurakarée, Datooga, Khoekhoe, Russian Sign Language, German Sign Language, Swedish Sign Language, Kata Kolok, Balinese Homesign and others. The project hypothesizes that speakers and signers of Indo-European languages predominantly use head movements as feedback signals, whereas speakers of non-Indo-European languages utilize alternative forms. Additionally, the study investigates how social-cognitive differences, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, affect the frequency and type of visual feedback. Finally, the research explores how conversational familiarity influences the frequency and nature of visual feedback, hypothesizing that familiar interlocutors rely less on visual cues, while unfamiliar ones use more to establish common ground. Ultimately, this research has broad implications for linguistic theory, human-computer interaction, clinical linguistics, and language acquisition. By shifting the focus from unimodal to multimodal interactional phenomena, the project advocates for a paradigm shift in the conceptualizing language, highlighting the significant role of visual cues in daily interactions.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
