Coming To Terms: Quantifying the Benefits of Linguistic Coordination

TY - JOUR

T1 - Coming To Terms: Quantifying the Benefits of Linguistic Coordination

AU - Fusaroli, Riccardo

AU - Bahrami, Bahador

AU - Olsen, Karsten

AU - Roepstorff, Andreas

AU - Rees, Geraint

AU - Frith, Chris D

AU - Tylén, Kristian

PY - 2012/8

Y1 - 2012/8

N2 - Sharing a public language facilitates particularly efficient forms of joint perception and action by giving interlocutors refined tools for directing attention and aligning conceptual models and action. We hypothesized that interlocutors who flexibly align their linguistic practices and converge on a shared language will improve their cooperative performance on joint tasks. To test this prediction, we employed a novel experimental design, in which pairs of participants cooperated linguistically to solve a perceptual task. We found that dyad members generally showed a high propensity to adapt to each other's linguistic practices. However, although general linguistic alignment did not have a positive effect on performance, the alignment of particular task-relevant vocabularies strongly correlated with collective performance. In other words, the more dyad members selectively aligned linguistic tools fit for the task, the better they performed. Our work thus uncovers the interplay between social dynamics and sensitivity to task affordances in successful cooperation.

AB - Sharing a public language facilitates particularly efficient forms of joint perception and action by giving interlocutors refined tools for directing attention and aligning conceptual models and action. We hypothesized that interlocutors who flexibly align their linguistic practices and converge on a shared language will improve their cooperative performance on joint tasks. To test this prediction, we employed a novel experimental design, in which pairs of participants cooperated linguistically to solve a perceptual task. We found that dyad members generally showed a high propensity to adapt to each other's linguistic practices. However, although general linguistic alignment did not have a positive effect on performance, the alignment of particular task-relevant vocabularies strongly correlated with collective performance. In other words, the more dyad members selectively aligned linguistic tools fit for the task, the better they performed. Our work thus uncovers the interplay between social dynamics and sensitivity to task affordances in successful cooperation.

KW - psycholinguistics

KW - cooperation

KW - problem solving

KW - social interaction

KW - language

U2 - 10.1177/0956797612436816

DO - 10.1177/0956797612436816

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 22810169

SN - 0956-7976

VL - 23

SP - 931

EP - 939

JO - Psychological Science

JF - Psychological Science

IS - 8

ER -