Comparing Manual and Automated Coding Methods of Nonverbal Synchrony

Fujiwara, Ken; Bernhold, Quinten S.; Dunbar, Norah E.; Otmar, Christopher D.; Hansia, Mohemmad

doi:10.1080/19312458.2020.1846695

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…This aspect of interpersonal adaptation (Burgoon et al, 1995 ) has recently received increased attention in the domain of psychotherapy (Wiltshire et al, 2020 ) and social psychology (Mogan et al, 2017 ), but it has remained far less explored in coaching. While recent advances have been made in the domain of relating nonverbal synchrony to qualitative aspects of nonverbal behavior (Fujiwara et al, 2020 ; Altmann et al, 2021a , b ), our conceptualization of nonverbal synchrony will be focused on movement dynamics , irrespective of movement quality or direction (Ramseyer, 2020b ). Generally speaking, studies on synchrony in interpersonal relationships have increased in recent years (Chetouani et al, 2017 ), and numerous positive aspects of interactional synchrony and interpersonal relationships have been reported (Chartrand and Lakin, 2013 ), but nonverbal synchrony between a coach and a client as specified in this paper has, so far, received no attention in coaching psychology.…”

Section: Conceptual Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Change Process in Coaching: Interplay of Nonverbal Synchrony, Working Alliance, Self-Regulation, and Goal Attainment

Erdös

Ramseyer

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Background: Psychological literature emphasizes that self-regulation is important as goal intentions, goal setting, or implementation intention does not automatically result in effective results in coaching. The question which coaching strategies to apply to strengthening clients' self-regulatory capacities as prerequisites of effective change outcomes remains a black box in coaching.Method: This quantitative study explored clients' self-regulatory mechanisms by addressing how nonverbal synchrony influences clients' cognitive and emotional self-regulation across sessions. One hundred eighty-four coach–client pairs and their evolving change process were observed over 8 months. Video-recorded sessions were assessed with motion energy analysis to automatically capture coach and client nonverbal behavior and quantify nonverbal synchrony at the level of the dyad.Results: Synchrony was differentially associated with clients' post-session questionnaires on result-oriented problem-reflection and self-reflection, affect balance, and working alliance. Network analyses suggested that the association between synchrony and other process variables did not correspond to the previously found positive association between synchrony and positive aspects of alliance or outcome. Instead, this association depended on the level of perceived outcome.Discussion: Coaching success may be predicted by process variables assessed after each session: goal reflection, alliance, and mood all predict successful coaching. The assessment of nonverbal synchrony suggests a state-dependent effect of embodied processes on a coaching outcome that warrants further inspection.

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Section: Conceptual Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Change Process in Coaching: Interplay of Nonverbal Synchrony, Working Alliance, Self-Regulation, and Goal Attainment

Erdös

Ramseyer

2021

Front. Psychol.

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“…Similarly, Fujiwara et al ( 2021 ) recently compared automated and manual coding methods for specific nonverbal behaviors, including gesture, posture, and nodding behavior, also using MEA to quantify movement activity. They found moderate correlations between the two methods.…”

Section: Study Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, as mentioned, MEA evidently lacks precision with respect to analyzing specific body part locations throughout an interaction (Bente, 2019 ). As Fujiwara et al ( 2021 ) note in their limitations, they failed to find a relationship between manually coded nodding similarity and automatically coded (through cross-wavelet analysis; Fujiwara & Daibo, 2016 ), stating that “This could be because the targeted region in MEA (i.e., the whole body) was too rough to capture the behaviors” (p. 15). In contrast, the use of full-body motion capture in the current study should further illuminate the relationship between objective synchrony measures of finer-grained behaviors and human observer ratings.…”

Section: Study Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Signatures of Perceived Interpersonal Synchrony

Novotny

Bente

2022

J Nonverbal Behav

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Interpersonal synchrony serves as a subtle, yet powerful bonding mechanism in social interactions. Problematically, the term ‘synchrony’ has been used to label a variety of distinct aspects of interpersonal coordination, such as postural similarities or movement activity entrainment. Accordingly, different algorithms have been suggested to quantify interpersonal synchrony. Yet, it remains unknown whether the different measures of synchrony represent correlated features of the same perceivable core phenomenon. The current study addresses this by comparing the suitability of a set of algorithms with respect to their association with observers’ judgments of dyadic synchrony and leader-followership. One-hundred fifteen observers viewed computer animations of characters portraying the movements of real dyads who performed a repetitive motor task with instruction to move in unison. Animations were based on full-body motion capture data synchronously collected for both partners during the joint exercise. Results showed most synchrony measures significantly correlated with (a) perceived synchrony and (b) the perceived level of balance of leading/following by each dyad member. Phase synchrony and Pearson correlations were associated most strongly with the observer ratings. This might be typical for intentional, structured forms synchrony such as ritualized group activities. It remains open if these findings also apply to spontaneous forms of synchrony as, for instance, occurring in free-running conversations.

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“…Several studies have compared human ratings of non-verbal synchrony and non-verbal synchrony obtained by cross-lagged correlation and provided evidence that movements rated by humans and by the algorithms lead to comparable synchrony results (Schmidt et al, 2012;Schönherr et al, 2019b;Fujivara et al, 2020). In a recent study (Feniger-Schaal et al, 2020), the use of windowed cross-lagged correlations (WCLC) with a peakpicking algorithm for assessing differences in leading patterns in the Mirror Game was demonstrated.…”

Section: Measuring (Movement) Synchrony In the Clinical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language and Movement Synchronization in Dyadic Psychotherapeutic Interaction – A Qualitative Review and a Proposal for a Classification

Scheidt

Pfänder

Ballati³

et al. 2021

Front. Psychol.

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In individual psychotherapy verbal communication and movement synchronization are closely interrelated. The microanalysis of timing, rhythm and gestalt of movement has established dynamic movement coordination as a systemic property of the dyadic interaction. Movement synchronization supports and enhances the unfolding of linguistic meaning. In order to substantiate the importance of the concept of synchrony for adult psychotherapy we review evidence from developmental psychology and discuss approaches to measure synchrony with particular reference to the naturalistic setting of dyadic psychotherapy. As the concept of synchrony is still ambiguous, and the respective interactional phenomena are ephemeral and fluid, in the current paper we suggest a set of five criteria for the description of synchronization in general terms and eight additional criteria which specifically enable the description of phenomena of movement synchronization. The five general dimensions are: (1) context, (2) modality, (3) resources, (4) entrainment, and (5) time-lag. The eight categories for the description of movement synchrony are: (1) spatial direction, (2) amplitude, (3) sinuosity, (4) duration, (5) event structure, (6) phase, (7) frequency, and (8) content. To understand the process of participatory sense-making and the emergence of meaning in psychotherapy, synchrony research has to cope with the multimodality of the embodied interaction. This requires an integrated perspective of movement and language. A system for the classification of synchrony phenomena may contribute to the linking of variations and patterns of movement with language and linguistic utterances.

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Comparing Manual and Automated Coding Methods of Nonverbal Synchrony

Cited by 15 publications

References 52 publications

Change Process in Coaching: Interplay of Nonverbal Synchrony, Working Alliance, Self-Regulation, and Goal Attainment

Change Process in Coaching: Interplay of Nonverbal Synchrony, Working Alliance, Self-Regulation, and Goal Attainment

Identifying Signatures of Perceived Interpersonal Synchrony

Language and Movement Synchronization in Dyadic Psychotherapeutic Interaction – A Qualitative Review and a Proposal for a Classification

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