Feedback quality and divided attention: exploring commentaries on alignment in task-oriented dialogue
While studies have shown the importance of listener feedback in dialogue, we still know little about the factors that impact its quality. Feedback can indicate either that the addressee is aligning with the speaker (i.e. ‘positive’ feedback) or that there is some communicative trouble (i.e. ‘negativ...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Language and Cognition |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980823000650/type/journal_article |
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| author | Ludivine Crible Greta Gandolfi Martin J. Pickering |
| author_facet | Ludivine Crible Greta Gandolfi Martin J. Pickering |
| author_sort | Ludivine Crible |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | While studies have shown the importance of listener feedback in dialogue, we still know little about the factors that impact its quality. Feedback can indicate either that the addressee is aligning with the speaker (i.e. ‘positive’ feedback) or that there is some communicative trouble (i.e. ‘negative’ feedback). This study provides an in-depth account of listener feedback in task-oriented dialogue (a director–matcher game), where positive and negative feedback is produced, thus expressing both alignment and misalignment. By manipulating the listener’s cognitive load through a secondary mental task, we measure the effect of divided attention on the quantity and quality of feedback. Our quantitative analysis shows that performance and feedback quantity remain stable across cognitive load conditions, but that the timing and novelty of feedback vary: turns are produced after longer pauses when attention is divided between two speech-focused tasks, and they are more economical (i.e. include more other-repetitions) when unrelated words need to be retained in memory. These findings confirm that cognitive load impacts the quality of listener feedback. Finally, we found that positive feedback is more often generic and shorter than negative feedback and that its proportion increases over time. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-63d5d3ba25804cbe8461e4ad876f51ff |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1866-9808 1866-9859 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Language and Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-63d5d3ba25804cbe8461e4ad876f51ff2025-08-20T02:36:03ZengCambridge University PressLanguage and Cognition1866-98081866-98592024-12-011689592310.1017/langcog.2023.65Feedback quality and divided attention: exploring commentaries on alignment in task-oriented dialogueLudivine Crible0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6300-2765Greta Gandolfi1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0690-4214Martin J. Pickering2Ghent University, Linguistics Department, Gent, BelgiumUniversity of Edinburgh, Psychology Department, Edinburgh, UKUniversity of Edinburgh, Psychology Department, Edinburgh, UKWhile studies have shown the importance of listener feedback in dialogue, we still know little about the factors that impact its quality. Feedback can indicate either that the addressee is aligning with the speaker (i.e. ‘positive’ feedback) or that there is some communicative trouble (i.e. ‘negative’ feedback). This study provides an in-depth account of listener feedback in task-oriented dialogue (a director–matcher game), where positive and negative feedback is produced, thus expressing both alignment and misalignment. By manipulating the listener’s cognitive load through a secondary mental task, we measure the effect of divided attention on the quantity and quality of feedback. Our quantitative analysis shows that performance and feedback quantity remain stable across cognitive load conditions, but that the timing and novelty of feedback vary: turns are produced after longer pauses when attention is divided between two speech-focused tasks, and they are more economical (i.e. include more other-repetitions) when unrelated words need to be retained in memory. These findings confirm that cognitive load impacts the quality of listener feedback. Finally, we found that positive feedback is more often generic and shorter than negative feedback and that its proportion increases over time.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980823000650/type/journal_articlecognitive loaddirector–matcher gamefeedbackinteractive alignmentrepetitions |
| spellingShingle | Ludivine Crible Greta Gandolfi Martin J. Pickering Feedback quality and divided attention: exploring commentaries on alignment in task-oriented dialogue Language and Cognition cognitive load director–matcher game feedback interactive alignment repetitions |
| title | Feedback quality and divided attention: exploring commentaries on alignment in task-oriented dialogue |
| title_full | Feedback quality and divided attention: exploring commentaries on alignment in task-oriented dialogue |
| title_fullStr | Feedback quality and divided attention: exploring commentaries on alignment in task-oriented dialogue |
| title_full_unstemmed | Feedback quality and divided attention: exploring commentaries on alignment in task-oriented dialogue |
| title_short | Feedback quality and divided attention: exploring commentaries on alignment in task-oriented dialogue |
| title_sort | feedback quality and divided attention exploring commentaries on alignment in task oriented dialogue |
| topic | cognitive load director–matcher game feedback interactive alignment repetitions |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980823000650/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ludivinecrible feedbackqualityanddividedattentionexploringcommentariesonalignmentintaskorienteddialogue AT gretagandolfi feedbackqualityanddividedattentionexploringcommentariesonalignmentintaskorienteddialogue AT martinjpickering feedbackqualityanddividedattentionexploringcommentariesonalignmentintaskorienteddialogue |