Centre for Cognition & Decision Making, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2022 Apr;75(4):730-741. doi: 10.1177/17470218211047437. Epub 2021 Oct 8.
Research on conversational pragmatics demonstrates how interlocutors tailor the information they share depending on the audience. Previous research showed that, in informal contexts, speakers often provide several alternative answers, whereas in formal contexts, they tend to give only a single answer; however, the psychological underpinnings of these effects remain obscure. To investigate this answer selection process, we measured participants' eye movements in different experimentally modelled social contexts. Participants answered general knowledge questions by providing responses with either single (one) or plural (three) alternatives. Then, a formal (job interview) or informal (conversation with friends) context was presented and participants decided either to report or withdraw their responses after considering the given social context. Growth curve analysis on the eye movements indicates that the selected response option attracted more eye movements. There was a discrepancy between the answer selection likelihood and the proportion of fixations to the corresponding option-but only in the formal context. These findings support a more elaborate decision-making processes in formal contexts. They also suggest that eye movements do not necessarily accompany the options considered in the decision-making processes.
会话语用学的研究表明，对话者会根据听众调整他们所分享的信息。先前的研究表明，在非正式语境中，说话者通常会提供多个可供选择的答案，而在正式语境中，他们往往只给出一个答案；然而，这些影响的心理基础仍然不清楚。为了研究这种答案选择过程，我们在不同的实验模拟社会情境中测量了参与者的眼动。参与者通过提供单一（一个）或复数（三个）选择的回答来回答一般知识问题。然后，呈现正式（工作面试）或非正式（与朋友交谈）的情境，参与者在考虑给定的社会情境后决定报告或撤回他们的回答。对眼动的增长曲线分析表明，所选的回答选项吸引了更多的眼球运动。在正式语境中，选择答案的可能性和注视相应选项的比例之间存在差异。这些发现支持了在正式情境中更精细的决策过程。它们还表明，眼球运动不一定伴随着决策过程中考虑的选项。
