Expertise
Long silences or constant interruptions spoil a good chat. In casual conversations, the average gap between two individuals' turns is around 250 milliseconds. Despite the incredibly tight time window, people, including infants, engage in these rapid back-and-forths effortlessly. How do we achieve that? Dr. Vivian Zhang's research explores this question by examining conversational turn-taking across diverse developmental populations, including multilingual children and neurodivergent groups. Coming to Eckerd, she is thrilled about the potential to add a comparative perspective and analyze turn-taking dynamics in dolphin vocal communication.