Measurement and meaning of head movements in everyday face-to-face communicative interaction.

Methodological approaches in which data on nonverbal behavior are collected usually involve interpretative methods in which raters must identify a set of defined categories of behavior. However, present knowledge about the qualitative aspects of head movement behavior calls for recording detailed transcriptions of behavior. These records are a prerequisite for investigating the function and meaning of head movement patterns. A method for directly collecting data on head movement behavior is introduced. Using small ultrasonic transducers, which are attached to various parts of an index person's body (head and shoulders), a microcomputer determines receiver-transducer distances. Three-dimensional positions are calculated by triangulation. These data are used for further calculations concerning the angular orientation of the head and the direction, size, and speed of head movements (in rotational, lateral, and sagittal dimensions). Further analyses determine relevant changes in movements, identify segments of movements, and classify the quantifications of movement patterns. The measured patterns of nonverbal behavior can be accurately related to features of verbal communication and other time-related variables (e.g., psychophysiological measures). To estimate the possible meanings of behavioral patterns, a heuristic is proposed that includes the situational context as the basis of interpretation.

The study of emotional processes in communication: I. Measuring emotionalization in everyday face-to-face communicative interaction.

The drawbacks of traditional research into emotional processes have led us to develop a set of methodologies for investigating them in everyday face-to-face communication. The conceptual basis of these procedures is a model of the eliciting conditions of emotional processes as well as a conceptualization of the emotional processes themselves. On the basis of the assumption of conversation as a rule-governed process, one can describe its default temporal, formal, and functional features, for which we use the MAS EDIT and SEQ programs, and the minimal model of communicative exchange, respectively. Violations of these default rules can be identified as unexpected/temporally unpredictable events eliciting emotionalization. The nature of emotionalization is determined by the psychological principle of "standard and deviation." Its investigation under natural conditions requires the following: A noninvasive method of data acquisition (including procedures for rejecting faulty or missing values), measurement (high-resolution recording of physiological, psychomotor, and vocal variables), and the (nonstatistical) construction of an inventory or "relevant effects" (contrastive and template analysis). Finally, we depict three routes of investigating time courses of activation changes as dependent and independent variables and as a target of modification and reflection.

The study of emotional processes in communication: II. Peripheral blood flow as an indicator of emotionalization.

Traditional methods of analyzing human peripheral blood flow (PBF) do not account for its continuous nature or small-scale variation. Sequel transformation is presented as a new methodology for measuring these variations. This analysis generates a richer record of aspects of activation of the autonomous nervous system than traditional interbeat-interval (IBI) measurement. Presumably, in addition to heartbeat (i.e., IBI), other information can be extracted that is consistent with the influence of several physiological and psychological factors. This kind of variation is reflected in the PBF signal. After determining and extracting relevant events from vascular volume data generated by sequel transformation, we demonstrate the use of template analysis to analyze patterns of events as time courses of activation. All procedures are included in the computer program VASC Analyzer.