In spoken conversations, speakers and their addressees constantly seek and provide different forms of audiovisual feedback, also known as backchannels, which include nodding, vocalizations and facial expressions. It has previously been shown that addressees backchannel at specific points during an interaction, namely after a speaker provided a cue to elicit feedback from the addressee. However, addressees may differ in the frequency and type of feedback that they provide, and likewise, speakers may vary the type of cues they generate to signal the backchannel opportunity points (BOPs). Research on the extent to which backchanneling is idiosyncratic is scant. In this article, we quantify and analyze the variability in feedback behavior of 14 addressees who all interacted with the same speaker stimulus. We conducted this research by means of a previously developed experimental paradigm that generates spontaneous interactions in a controlled manner. Our results show that (1) backchanneling behavior varies between listeners (some addressees are more active than others) and (2) backchanneling behavior varies between BOPs (some points trigger more responses than others). We discuss the relevance of these results for models of human–human and human–machine interactions.

中文翻译：

---

反向渠道的行为是特殊的

在口语对话中，说话者及其收件人不断寻求并提供不同形式的视听反馈，也称为反向通道，包括点头、发声和面部表情。先前的研究表明，收件人会在交互过程中的特定点进行反向沟通，即在演讲者提供提示以引出收件人的反馈之后。然而，收件人提供反馈的频率和类型可能有所不同，同样，发言者可能会改变他们生成的暗示反向渠道机会点 (BOP) 的提示类型。关于反向渠道的特殊程度的研究很少。在本文中，我们量化并分析了 14 位接受者的反馈行为的变异性，他们都与相同的说话者刺激进行互动。我们通过先前开发的实验范式进行了这项研究，该实验范式以受控方式产生自发相互作用。我们的结果表明，(1) 听众之间的反向渠道行为有所不同（一些收件人比其他人更活跃），(2) BOP 之间的反向渠道行为有所不同（某些点比其他点触发更多的响应）。我们讨论这些结果与人与人以及人与机器交互模型的相关性。