Chicago, IL
Schedule in Chronological Order
Dimensions of Interaction
Revealed by Gesture Analysis
Fri, Nov
16 - 5:00pm - 6:15pm
Chicago Hilton / Continental Ballroom B
Chair: Judee
Burgoon, University of Arizona
Respondents:
Melissa Singer
(University of Illinois, Chicago)
David McNeill (University of Chicago)
Susan Duncan (University of Chicago)
Amy Franklin (University of Chicago)
Gestures are
known to be communicative (Ekman & Friesen, 1969; Rime, 1982),
interactive (Bavelas, Chovil, Lawrie & Wade, 1992), and provide a
“window into the mind” of speakers (McNeill, 2005).
The work
presented here extends the analytic lens to peek through the window
into the mind of conversational groups and dyads. Close analysis of
the speech and gestural performances of all members of a
conversation reveal more about the interaction than is
propositionally expressed, including non-articulated ideas, the
birth of within group coalitions, and the disruption of
interpersonal rapport.
Four guest
scholars from psychology and linguistics explore how gestures
provide a window into the mind of speakers in dyads and groups.
Melissa Singer shows how children develop shared understandings of
abstract concepts through gesture. David McNeill explores how
gesture-language units foster “mind-merging” and reflect stages of
interaction. Amy Franklin and Susan Duncan investigate how
synchronization in dyads waxes and wanes with the presence of
deceit. Members of the Nonverbal Communication Division will offer
commentary.
Presentation 1
Melissa Singer, University of Illinois Chicago
Melissa Singer presents
evidence demonstrating how nascent understanding of abstract
concepts like plate tectonics may be inarticulable but nevertheless
discussed gesturally between children. She will discuss how gesture
seemed to mediate the social process of co-constructing a shared
understanding of plate tectonics, and how gesture seemed to help
children communicate and concretize concepts that were not yet
accessible in speech.
Presentation 2
David McNeill, University of Chicago
David McNeill explores
how, in groups, communication can be regarded, in part, as the
temporary joint construction and sharing of gesture-language units
(‘Growth Points’ [McNeill 2005]), to foster what can be called
‘mind-merging.’ He will discuss how mind-merging has been analyzed
empirically in terms of the procedures that speakers (U.S. military
officers) unconsciously adopt to share growth points at various
stages of group interactions – turn exchanges, coalition formation
(and dissolution), and the binding of cohesive discourse segments.
Presentation 3
Amy Franklin & Susan Duncan, University of Chicago
Finally, Amy Franklin and
Susan Duncan investigate how feelings of connectedness between
dyadic partners, as expressed by synchronized behaviors, wax and
wane when one member of the dyad is instructed to deceive the other
New Psychological Perspectives on
Nonverbal Communication
Sat, Nov
17 - 12:30pm - 1:45pm
Chicago Hilton / Boulevard C
Chair: Valerie Manusov
(University of Washington)
Respondents:
Starkey Duncan
(University of Chicago)
Miles Patterson (University of Missouri)
Linda Camras (DePaul University)
Jennifer Richeson (Northwestern University)
Guest
psychologists share their current research on nonverbal
communication. Starkey Duncan and Miles Patterson examine how
participants jointly construct focused or unfocused interactions in
“Studying the Rules for Face-to-face interaction” and “Mining the
Mundane: Nonverbal Behavior in Unfocused Interactions.” Jennifer
Richeson & Sophie Trawalter examine nonverbal indicators of
discomfort in “Let’s Talk about Race, Baby! Exploring Race-related
Differences in Interracial Contact.” Linda Camras challenges
prevailing views of emotions in “Facial Expression and Emotion in
Infancy.”
Presentation 1
Studying the Rules for Face-to-Face Interaction
Starkey Duncan, Dept of Psychology, University of Chicago
Abstract: This
discussion addresses the issue of how participants know how to
behave appropriately when they come into interaction. An answer to
this question is that there are conventions or rules for appropriate
conduct, given the applicable situation or context for the
interaction. This typically requires an integrated analysis of a
wide range of nonverbal actions. Given that the participants know
the applicable rules, then there are issues of strategy: how
participants jointly construct an instance interaction within the
constraints of the applicable rules. A useful analogy would be games
such as chess or baseball that have defined rules. Within the
constraints of these rules participants or teams jointly construct
an instance of the game. The analogy is limited in the sense that
the rules for games are explicit while many of the rules for
interaction, while known by the participants, are implicit and
cannot be described by them. Research in this area is designed to
discover and describe the rules operating in an interaction. In its
initial stage, this research is exploratory, designed to generate
empirically based hypotheses concerning the rules applying to
specific types of interactions. An essential component in this
research is the adequate description of the rules once they are
hypothesized. That is, what would be an adequate description of
interaction rules look like? Examples of hypothesized rules and
attendant strategies will be provided, and analytic tools
facilitating this process will be described.
Presentation 2
Mining the Mundane: Nonverbal Behavior in
Unfocused Interactions
Miles Patterson, Dept of Psychology, University of Missouri, Saint
Louis
Abstract: Most of
the research on interactive nonverbal communication has been
conducted in laboratory settings where individuals engage in focused
interactions (Goffman, 1963). That is, they interact in both verbal
and nonverbal channels in a setting where greater experimental
control is possible and the exchanges may be videotaped.
Nevertheless, we also interact in settings where we simply share a
common presence with others, such as standing in line at the grocery
store, stepping into a half-filled elevator, or walking through a
crowded mall. In these unfocused interactions (Goffman, 1963),
individuals negotiate their position and maintain comfort through
their nonverbal adjustments. The systematic study of unfocused
interactions is important because (1) they are ubiquitous; (2) they
can prime subsequent nonverbal communication; (3) as low investment
interactions they are a good reflection of implicit attitudes; and
(4) they maximize external validity. A specific approach to studying
the interactions of pedestrians – the passing encounters paradigm –
will be discussed and results of initial field experiments will be
presented.
Presentation 3
Let’s Talk About Race, Baby! Exploring Race-related
Differences in Interracial Contact Anxiety
Jennifer A. Richeson & Sophie Trawalter, Depts of Psychology and
African-American Studies, Northwestern University
Abstract: Although
examinations of the dynamics of interracial interactions are growing
in number, only recently have studies begun to focus on minority and
majority individuals’ experiences in tandem (e.g., Shelton, Richeson,
& Salvatore, 2005). Adopting a more relational approach, however, is
likely to enhance our understanding of how members of different
groups experience interactions with one another (Shelton & Richeson,
2006). The present study considered the conditions under which
interracial contact is experienced as stressful, from the
perspectives of both White and Black interaction participants.
Twenty-nine White and 29 Black college students engaged in brief
videotaped interactions with one other during which they discussed 3
topics, one of which could be construed as relevant to race (racial
diversity) and two of which were race-neutral (fraternity life and
campus drinking). To assess anxiety, trained coders rated the extent
to which participants fidgeted, engaged in direct eye contact
(reversed), used adapters, exhibited facial rigidity, and counted
participants’ eye-blinking behavior. Results revealed that White
participants behaved more anxiously, on average, than Black
participants. Furthermore, the discussion topic influenced
participant anxiety. Specifically, whereas White participants were
marginally more anxious when discussing the race-related compared
with the race-neutral topics, Black participants were more anxious
when discussing the race-neutral topics compared with the
race-related topic. These results suggest that the conditions that
produce interracial anxiety may differ for members of majority and
minority groups, and, furthermore, that the very conditions that may
reduce anxiety for one participant may actually increase the anxiety
experienced by the other.
Presentation 4
Facial Expression and Emotion in Infancy
Linda A. Camras, Dept of Psychology, DePaul
University
Abstract:
Considerable controversy exists regarding whether infants experience
and express discrete emotions. According to one position, discrete
emotions emerge during infancy along with their prototypic facial
expressions. These expressions are thought to closely resemble adult
emotional expressions and be invariantly concordant with their
corresponding emotions. In contrast, a second position holds that
the relation between expression and emotion during infancy is more
complex. Some infant emotions and emotional expressions may not be
invariantly concordant. Furthermore, negative emotional expressions
may be less differentiated that previously proposed. In support of
this second position, data from several studies involving both
American and Asian infants will be presented and discussed.
