Perspective-Taking in Conversation

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Face-to-face conversation plays a key role in children's language acquisition and adult communication, and in the evolution of languages over time. However, surprisingly little is known about the cognitive mechanisms that affect language use in conversation. One feature of conversation is that what we say and how we say it depends on our insights into the knowledge and beliefs of the people we talk to. Sometimes these insights are correct, sometimes they fail dramatically, and other times the insights are still unformed. This research project will explore how insights into others are formed, how these insights are used, and how they may fail. A series of experiments will use eye-tracking technology to study these processes on a moment-by-moment basis as they occur in natural conversation. The work draws from recent advances in psycholinguistics, developmental psychology, and social psychology.This project will provide insights into a poorly understood but core component of language, that is, appreciating the perspectives of others. It has potentially diverse implications, including improving education through perspective-taking in teacher-student dyads and in math education through the use of perspective-taking in reasoning about the geometry of multi-dimensional figures.