The Role of Feedback in Aligning Perspectives in Referential Communication

Successful dialogue frequently requires that interlocutors construct and align their conceptualizations of referents. This study presents data from a referential communication experiment the manipulates contextual factors such as the availability of feedback and role constancy in order to investigate how conversational partners reconcile their perspectives in the face of mutual uncertainty about what constitutes common ground. The results show that speakers tend to incorporate information about the addressee’s perspective, and that this information tends to come through direct feedback rather than through indirect channels such as turn-taking.