Gaze, Dominance and Dialogue Role in the MULTISIMO Corpus

Analysis of human interactions benefits from understanding patterns of gaze in dialogue. Using a multi-modal task oriented dialogue corpus, we evaluate relations between gaze behaviours, conversational dominance and dialogue role. Dominant players spend more time looking at their co-player than their less dominant fellows; the facilitator spends more time gazing at the dominant player than at the less dominant; dominant players spend longer averting their gaze than their less dominant fellows. When aligned with dialogue roles, gaze behaviour differences between players are demonstrated when occupying the role of speaker but not of listener. Less dominant speakers gaze longer at a facilitator, while effects on averted gaze and co-player directed gaze remain present for dominant speakers but not for dominant listeners. Finally, where dominance is not balanced among players, mutual gaze involving players only is less than mutual gaze involving facilitators.