Movement coordination during conversation

PLoS One. 2014 Aug 13;9(8):e105036. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105036. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Behavioral coordination and synchrony contribute to a common biological mechanism that maintains communication, cooperation and bonding within many social species, such as primates and birds. Similarly, human language and social systems may also be attuned to coordination to facilitate communication and the formation of relationships. Gross similarities in movement patterns and convergence in the acoustic properties of speech have already been demonstrated between interacting individuals. In the present studies, we investigated how coordinated movements contribute to observers' perception of affiliation (friends vs. strangers) between two conversing individuals. We used novel computational methods to quantify motor coordination and demonstrated that individuals familiar with each other coordinated their movements more frequently. Observers used coordination to judge affiliation between conversing pairs but only when the perceptual stimuli were restricted to head and face regions. These results suggest that observed movement coordination in humans might contribute to perceptual decisions based on availability of information to perceivers.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Female
  • Friends
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations*
  • Kinesics*
  • Language
  • Male
  • Movement
  • Perception
  • Recognition, Psychology
  • Speech*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Queen’s University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.