For many applications in human-computer interaction, it is desirable to predict between-(gaps) and within-(pauses) speaker silences independently of automatic speech recognition (ASR). In this study, we focus a dataset of 6 dyadic task-based interactions and aim at automatic discrimination of gaps and pauses based on f0, energy and glottal parameters derived from the speech just preceding the s...

Much research on disfluencies in spontaneous spoken interaction has been carried out on corpora of task-based conversations, resulting in greater understanding of the role of several phenomena. Modern multimodal corpora allow the full spectrum of signals in face to face communication to be analysed. However, the ‘unmarked’ case of casual conversation or social talk with no obvious short-term in...

The nature of the dynamics of nonverbal interactions is of considerable interest to the study of human communication and future human-computer interaction. Facial expressions constitute an important source of nonverbal social signals. Whereas most studies have focused on the facial expressions of isolated individuals, the aim of this study is to explore the coupling dynamics of facial expressio...

Are children as young as 2 years old able to interact in groups of three? The study applied the family triad model first introduced by Parke, Power, and Gottman (1979) to the case of peer interaction. In Experiment 1, the model was refined for use in studies of peer interaction and applied to an existing dataset of 16 triads of newly acquainted 24-month-olds. In Experiment 2, the triadic coding...

Child engagement is defined as the interaction of a child with his/her environment in a contextually appropriate manner. Engagement behavior in children is linked to socio-emotional and cognitive state assessment with enhanced engagement identified with improved skills. A vast majority of studies however rely solely, and often implicitly, on subjective perceptual measures of engagement. Access ...

The human ability to follow speech gestures through the visual modality is a core component of speech perception. Remarkably, speech can be perceived not only by the ear and by the eye but also by the hand, with speech gestures felt from manual tactile contact with the speaker’s face. In the present study, early crossmodal interactions were investigated by comparing early auditory evoked potent...

In this longitudinal study, we examined the moderating role of personality in the relationship between communication behaviors and long-term dyadic adjustment. A sample of 82 couples completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. These couples were also videotaped during a 15-minute problem-solving discussion. Approximately 2.5 years later, these couples completed agai...

For animals living in natural or semi-natural settings, empirical data on how sociality changes in response to increasing population density are few, especially with respect to true conspecific density and not group size. However, insight into this line of research may be far-reaching--from understanding density dependence in sexual selection to improving models of disease transmission. Using e...