Cues to next-speaker projection in conversational Swedish: Evidence from reaction times

We present first results of a study investigating the salience and typicality of prosodic markers in Swedish at turn ends for turn yielding and turn-keeping purposes. We performed an experiment where participants (N=32) were presented with conversational chunks and, after the audio ended, were asked to determine which of two speakers would speak next by clicking a picture on a screen. Audio stimuli were manipulated by (i) raising and (ii) lowering f 0 over the last 500 ms of a turn, (iii) speeding up or (iv) slowing down duration over the last 500 ms, and (v) raising and (vi) lowering the last pitch peak. In our data, out of all manipulations, increasing the speech rate was found to be the most disruptive (p<.005). Higher speech rate led to longer reaction times in turn-keeping, which were shorter in turn-yielding. Other manipulations did not significantly alter reaction times. The results presented here may be complemented with eye movement data, to further elucidate cognitive mechanisms underlying turn-taking behavior