Gaze and speech behavior in parent–child interactions: The role of conflict and cooperation

Gijs A Holleman,Jorg Huijding,Roy S Hessels,Chantal Kemner,Ignace T C Hooge,Maja Deković

doi:10.1007/s12144-021-02532-7

Abstract

A primary mode of human social behavior is face-to-face interaction. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of gaze and its relation to speech behavior during video-mediated face-to-face interactions between parents and their preadolescent children. 81 parent–child dyads engaged in conversations about cooperative and conflictive family topics. We used a dual-eye tracking setup that is capable of concurrently recording eye movements, frontal video, and audio from two conversational partners. Our results show that children spoke more in the cooperation-scenario whereas parents spoke more in the conflict-scenario. Parents gazed slightly more at the eyes of their children in the conflict-scenario compared to the cooperation-scenario. Both parents and children looked more at the other's mouth region while listening compared to while speaking. Results are discussed in terms of the role that parents and children take during cooperative and conflictive interactions and how gaze behavior may support and coordinate such interactions.

Highlights

A primary mode of human social behavior is face-to-face interaction
We focus on the role of conflict and cooperation between parents and their preadolescent children and how these interpersonal dynamics may be reflected in patterns of gaze and speech behavior
The dual eye-tracking setup used was designed to allow for these behaviors, other eye-tracking studies have demonstrated that such behaviors may negatively affect eye-tracking data quality (Hessels et al, 2015; Holleman et al, 2019; Niehorster et al, 2018)

Summary

Introduction

A primary mode of human social behavior is face-to-face interaction. This is the “central ecological niche” where languages are learned and most language use occurs New eye-tracking techniques have been developed to measure gaze behavior of individuals during face-toface interactions with higher spatial and temporal resolution (Hessels et al, 2019; Ho et al, 2015; Rogers et al, 2018). These techniques have not been used to study the relation between speech and gaze in parent–child conversations

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion