Acoustic and Facial Markers of Perceived Conversational Success in Spontaneous Speech
This work addresses the problem of understanding conversational quality in naturalistic virtual settings for applications in communication enhancement.
The study analyzed spontaneous Zoom conversations to identify how conversational dynamics relate to perceived interaction quality, finding that entrainment (alignment of speaking patterns) in spontaneous speech correlates with higher perceived conversational success.
Individuals often align their speaking patterns with their interlocutors, a phenomenon linked to engagement and rapport. While well documented in task-oriented dialogues, less is known about entrainment in naturalistic, non-task and virtual settings. In this study, we analyze a large corpus of spontaneous dyadic Zoom conversations to examine how conversational dynamics relate to perceived interaction quality. We extract multimodal features encompassing turn-taking, pauses, facial movements, and acoustic measures such as pitch and intensity. Perceived conversational success was quantified via factor analysis of post-conversation ratings. Results demonstrate that entrainment reliably detected in spontaneous speech and correlates with higher perceived success. These findings identify key interactional markers of conversational quality and highlight opportunities for targeted interventions to foster more effective and engaging communication.