Don't hesitate! The length of inter-turn gaps influences observers' interactional attributions
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- What can we learn from a pause? This dissertation examines whether a pause between speaking turns in a conversation (a gap) can change how we view that conversation and its participants (a gap effect). In particular, it asks whether the length of a gap can influence interactional attributions—that is, attributions of the participants' engagement with each other (e.g., attentiveness) and the overall quality of their interaction (e.g., its awkwardness). In four experiments, I manipulated the length of the gap between spontaneous, recorded questions and answers, and then asked observers to listen to each question-answer pair and rate a range of interactional attributes. These experiments addressed four primary research goals: extend the gap effect to new attributes, develop a broader account of gap effect moderation, clarify the role of gap length in the gap effect, and generalize the gap effect to new measures and stimuli. Indeed, lengthening the gap changed observers' interactional attributions (Experiments 1, 2 and 3). These attributions were moderated by observers' expectation that a long gap would occur, which was shaped by the presumed mental effort required to process or respond to the question (Experiment 3). These attributions were not due to conscious reasoning about the gap or changes in the observers' listening experience (Experiments 2 and 3). However, none of these effects replicated when the question-answer pairs were presented in their original conversational context (Experiment 4). There is still much to learn about what a pause can tell us in everyday conversations.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2017 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Henetz, Tania |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
| Primary advisor | Clark, Herbert H |
| Thesis advisor | Clark, Herbert H |
| Thesis advisor | Clark, Eve V |
| Thesis advisor | Thomas, Ewart A. C |
| Advisor | Clark, Eve V |
| Advisor | Thomas, Ewart A. C |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Tania Henetz. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2017. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2017 by Tania Katherine Henetz
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...