The Role of Eye Gaze in Regulating Turn Taking in Conversations: A Systematized Review of Methods and Findings.

Ziedune Degutyte,Arlene Astell

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616471

Abstract

Eye gaze plays an important role in communication but understanding of its actual function or functions and the methods used to elucidate this have varied considerably. This systematized review was undertaken to summarize both the proposed functions of eye gaze in conversations of healthy adults and the methodological approaches employed. The eligibility criteria were restricted to a healthy adult population and excluded studies that manipulated eye gaze behavior. A total of 29 articles—quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods were returned, with a wide range of methodological designs. The main areas of variability related to number of conversants, their familiarity and status, conversation topic, data collection tools—video and eye tracking—and definitions of eye gaze. The findings confirm that eye gaze facilitates turn yielding, plays a role in speech monitoring, prevents and repairs conversation breakdowns and facilitates intentional and unintentional speech interruptions. These findings were remarkably consistent given the variability in methods across the 29 articles. However, in relation to turn initiation, the results were less consistent, requiring further investigation. This review provides a starting point for future studies to make informed decisions about study methods for examining eye gaze and selecting variables of interest.

Highlights

Human beings have evolved complex social-cognitive skills which enable us to exchange knowledge and communicate in multiple ways (Herrmann et al, 2007)
Fourteen of the 29 studies examined conversation in dyads, 11 looked at triads, six studied multiparty conversations, and one did not report the number of interactants (Table 3)
This review has identified a variety of methodological approaches that are likely to affect eye gaze behavior in communication

Summary

Introduction

Human beings have evolved complex social-cognitive skills which enable us to exchange knowledge and communicate in multiple ways (Herrmann et al, 2007). Vocal [e.g., tone of voice; (Lerner, 2004)] and non-verbal [e.g., eye gaze, gestures, facial expressions (Kendon, 1967; Bavelas and Chovil, 2000)] behaviors that convey meanings, intentions, and information. The role that eye gaze plays in social interaction has been studied across a variety of fields, including typical and atypical child development (Baron-Cohen, 1997; Morales et al, 2000), mental health conditions [including schizophrenia (Dowiasch et al, 2016); posttraumatic stress disorder (Lazarov et al, 2019), and bipolar disorder (Purcell et al, 2018)], primates (Ryan et al, 2019) and human-robot interaction (Admoni and Scassellati, 2017). Eye gaze has been studied with different theoretical and methodological approaches

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion