Gaze Distribution between Face-to-Face and Online Conversation

Abstract

This study examines the difference of gaze distribution between face-to-face and online conversation focusing on gaze destination and distribution timing. Many studies have shown interest in gaze as it plays important roles in forecasting turn change and indicatingattention or involvement in conversation. On the other hand, in online conversation, which has rapidly grown in popularity among people, it has been pointed out that gaze may be differently utilized from face-to-face situations. Based on these, the authors collected video data ofconversations from both situations by the same participants' combinations and then analyzed the position and duration of gaze. The result is as follows: gaze position does not show any significantdifference, while the gaze gap between gaze beginning and speech beginning, and gaze beginning and speech terminating are significant. It is suggested that the difference may be related to the difference in the sequence organization between the two settings.