Temporal Aspects of Behavioral Alignment in Collaborative Remembering

The coordination of verbal and non-verbal facets of communication between interlocutors appears to be one of the basic cognitive tuning processes for social interaction. In this paper we examine the temporal aspects of behavioral alignment in small group interactions that take place in a natural setting. We find that participants tend to align their body posture and gestures in a sequential rather than simultaneous manner. Our results furthermore suggest that behavioral resonance generally happens fast, but can also occur with substantial delay.