Multimodal feedback signals
The project is funded by the cluster Development Program Language Challenges within the Key Profile Area Skills and Structure in Language and Cognition (SSLAC). It runs from 2022-2026.
Project description
Any natural interaction is rife with feedback mechanisms, which serve to coordinate interaction, direct the advancement of narrative, manage attention and establish common ground. These mechanisms can come in different forms and may indicate active involvement, comprehension or trouble. Various feedback signals (continuers, acknowledgement tokens, newsmarkers, change-of-state tokens and others) can be marked by multimodal cues: vocal cues (e.g., ‘mmh’), manual cues (e.g., gestures) and non-manual cues (e.g., nods, eye gaze, facial expression). We focus on feedback signals in free interaction from a multimodal and cross-linguistic perspective by comparing the use and semiotic composition of the in the discourse of speakers and signers.
Team
Student assistant – Lina Herrmann
Collaborations with: Birgit Hellwig, Pamela Perniss, Sonja Gipper, Tobias-Alexander Herrmann, Jana Hosemann, Simona Sbranna, Job Schepens.



Latest outcome
- Bauer, Anastasia, Gipper, Sonja, Jana Hosemann & Tobias-Alexander Herrmann. (to be submitted to October 2024). Language Feedback Revised: modality agnostic and holistic approach to multimodal addressee’s signals in dyadic interaction.
- Simona Sbranna, Simon Wehrle, Anastasia Bauer, Sonja Gipper, Tobias-Alexander Herrmann & Jana Hosemann. 2023. Predictability of head movements as feedback signals in signed and spoken languages. LingCologne, 16-17 June 2023.
- Bauer, Anastasia, Gipper, Sonja, Herrmann, Tobias-Alexander & Jana Hosemann. 2023. Multimodal feedback signals: Comparing response tokens in co-speech gesture and sign language. MMSYM, 26th -28th April 2023, Barcelona, 10.13140/RG.2.2.10524.16007
- Mitchell, Alice, Anastasia Bauer & Birgit Hellwig. 2023. A first cross-linguistic foray into children’s feedback signals, 45th Annual conference of the German Linguistic Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft, DGfS), 7-10 March 2023, Cologne. https://dgfs2023.uni-koeln.de/en/program/workshops-overview
- Hosemann, Jana, Bauer, Anastasia, Gipper, Sonja, Herrmann, Tobias-Alexander. 2023. Panel session AG4: Creativity and routine in linguistic feedback. 45th Annual conference of the German Linguistic Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft, DGfS), 7-10 March 2023, Cologne. https://dgfs2023.uni-koeln.de/en/program/workshops-overview