Nonverbal Communication in Psychology

**105**

**Chapter 6**

**Abstract**

the two concepts.

**1. Introduction**

ISO 24617-2

A Case Study

*and Simona Majhenič*

Can Turn-Taking Highlight the

Nature of Non-Verbal Behavior:

The present research explores non-verbal behavior that accompanies the management of turns in naturally occurring conversations. To analyze turn management, we implemented the ISO 24617-2 multidimensional dialog act annotation scheme. The classification of the communicative intent of non-verbal behavior was performed with the annotation scheme for spontaneous authentic communication called the EVA annotation scheme. Both dialog acts and non-verbal communicative intent were observed according to their underlying nature and information exchange channel. Both concepts were divided into foreground and background expressions. We hypothesize that turn management dialog acts, being a background expression, co-occur with communication regulators, a class of non-verbal communicative intent, which are also of background nature. Our case analysis confirms this hypothesis. Furthermore, it reveals that another group of non-verbal communicative intent, the deictics, also often accompany turn management dialog acts. As deictics can be both foreground and background expressions, the premise that background non-verbal communicative intent is interlinked with background dialog acts is upheld. And when deictics were perceived as part of the foreground they co-occurred with foreground dialog acts. Therefore, dialog acts and non-verbal communicative intent share the same underlying nature, which implies a duality of

**Keywords:** non-verbal behavior, non-verbal communicative intent, multimodal analysis, background expressions, regulators, deictics, turn-taking, dialog acts,

Turn-taking is an indispensable part of spontaneous and authentic human communication. Despite its significance, it is not always as obvious and straightforward as one might want it to be. Rather, it is sometimes conveyed by elusive and subtle cues. These cues can be of verbal or non-verbal nature, but, in successful communication, all of them can be picked up by the human observer. To facilitate effective natural communication between machines and humans, significant effort must be put towards understanding and recognizing the inter-dynamics and intent

of non-verbal communication, of which turn-taking is also a part.

*Izidor Mlakar, Matej Rojc, Darinka Verdonik* 
