Face-to-face dialogue is the fundamental form of language use, whether in evolutionary, developmental, or everyday terms. Our team’s long-term program of basic research is the experimental investigation of how face-to-face dialogue works and what makes it unique from other forms of language use (e.g., phone, written text, electronic media, etc.). We are focusing on two resources that, in combination, make face-to-face dialogue a unique form of language use:

(1) In face-to-face dialogue, there are both audible and visible elements; that is, words and prosody synchronize with hand and facial gestures as well as gaze to form integrated messages. We study the detailed nature of this integration.

(2) As H. H. Clark and his colleagues have proposed, dialogue is collaborative. We are interested in the high degree of reciprocity in dialogue, that is, the constant, rapid, and essential coordination between the participants. Our experiments examine how this collaboration occurs and with what effects.

The drop down menu items indicate where you can find the details of our theories, methods, and findings, usually with direct links to articles or chapters. The studies often overlap several topics, because the phenomena function together in face-to-face dialogue.