Putting language back into ecological communication contexts

Abstract

Language is a multi-faceted form of communication. It is not until recently though that language research moved on from simple stimuli and protocols toward a more ecologically valid approach, namely "shifting" from words and simple sentences to stories with varying degrees of contextual complexity. While much needed, the use of ecologically valid stimuli such as stories should also be explored in interactive rather than individualistic experimental settings leading the way to an interactive neuroscience of language. Indeed, mounting evidence suggests that cognitive processes and their underlying neural activity significantly differ between social and individual experiences. We aim at reviewing evidence, which indicates that the characteristics of linguistic and extra-linguistic contexts may significantly influence communicationincluding spoken language comprehension. In doing so, we provide evidence on the use of new paradigms and methodological advancements that may enable the study of complex language features in a truly interactive, ecological way.

How do you know that? Automatic belief inferences in passing conversation

“…It may be argued that using a self-paced reading task defeats the purpose of a study aiming to promote the investigation of belief reasoning in conversation (see also Verga & Kotz, 2019). While we agree that the ideal test case of our proposal would be a study of belief reasoning in naturalistic interaction, testing the difference between the automatic and spontaneous views of belief reasoning requires a highly controlled experimental setup.…”

Enhanced emotional and motor responses to live versus videotaped dynamic facial expressions

“…Most psychological studies regarding social interaction have used highly controlled laboratory settings with prerecorded static photographs or video clips that differed from naturalistic social behaviors in aspects such as visual fidelity, social context, and the potential for social interaction with the stimulus material. Experts have called for a reconsideration of the ecological validity of these stimuli and of the design of psychological studies of non-verbal and verbal interpersonal communication and interactions, which may improve the interpretability and generalizability of such findings 19,20 . To the best of our knowledge, only one study has compared the effects of live interaction with those of prerecorded stimuli in terms of emotional and motor responses to facial expressions.…”

Interactive rhythms across species: the evolutionary biology of animal chorusing and turn‐taking

“…23,72,73 These conjectures may account for the current trend linking behavioral alternation across a wide range of nonhuman animals to cooperation and referring to such alternation as turn-taking. 13,23 While we are sympathetic toward interactive accounts of the evolution of language and speech, 6,14,27,74 turn-taking, cooperation, and language origins have not been shown to be so strongly connected as depicted in some turn-taking work. 13,23 Across nonhuman animals, acoustic turn-taking is certainly widespread, but it is not necessarily cooperative.…”

“…However, the study of speech and language has traditionally focused on individual linguistic thought, production, and perception, rather than interactive communication . This historical focus on individual language capacities, partly due to a generativist tradition in language sciences, is rapidly changing . Unanswered questions regarding how individual communicative rhythms are shaped by group interactions and modulated by social behavior are starting to be addressed .…”

“…1 This historical focus on individual language capacities, partly due to a generativist tradition in language sciences, 2-4 is rapidly changing. 5,6 Unanswered questions regarding how individual communicative rhythms are shaped by group interactions and modulated by social behavior are starting to be addressed. [7][8][9][10] The study of conversation and turn-taking is taking center stage.…”