Prosodic Characteristics of Feedback Expressions in Distracted and Non-distracted Listeners

In a previous study we investigated properties of communicative feedback produced by attentive and non-attentive listeners in dialogue. Distracted listeners were found to produce less feedback communicating understanding. Here, we assess the role of prosody in differentiating between feedback functions. We find significant differences across all studied prosodic dimensions as well as influences of lexical form and phonetic structure on feedback function categorisation. We also show that differences in prosodic features between attentiveness states exist, e.g., in overall intensity.