{"pk":28455,"title":"Conversation Transition Times:\nWorking Memory & Conversational Alignment","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Fluent conversation is a marvel of multi-tasking within the\nlanguage domain: listeners must simultaneously comprehend\nthe speaker, predict a turn transition point, and plan a\nresponse. Experiment 1 used spontaneous conversation to\ninvestigate the apparent demands of conversation on working\nmemory by manipulating the difficulty of a secondary task.\nThe experiment found support for Load Theory's (e.g., Lavie\net al. 2004) prediction that both conversational fluency and\nperformance on a secondary task would decrease as working\nmemory load increased. However, there was also some\nsupport for Pickering and Garrod's (2004, 2013) proposal that\ndialogue is facilitated by a collection of automatic cognitive\noperations when interlocutors are well-aligned (i.e., using the\nsame words, phrases, and structures to discuss the same\ntopics). Experiment 2 tested two claims motivated by this\naccount: alignment is necessary for fluent turn transitions, and\nlexical repetition between speakers is an essential component\nof the alignment advantage. We found support for the former\nclaim, but not the latter.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Conversation"},{"word":"Dialogue"},{"word":"working memory"}],"section":"Papers with Oral Presentations","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/98w3t6b4","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Julie","middle_name":"E.","last_name":"Boland","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Michigan","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2019-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/28455/galley/18326/download/"}]}