Basics of Intersubjectivity Dynamics: Model of Synchrony Emergence When Dialogue Partners Understand Each Other

Since Condon’s annotations of videotaped interactions in 1966, an increasing amount of studies points the crucial role of non-verbal behaviours in communication. Among others, synchrony between interactants is claimed to be an evidence of the interaction quality: to give to humans a feeling of natural dialogue, agents must be able to react on appropriate time. Recent dynamical models propose that synchrony emerges from the coupling between interactants. We propose here, and test in simulation, a model of verbal communication which links the mutual understanding of dialogue partners to the emergence of synchrony between their non-verbal behaviours: if interactants understand each other, synchrony emerges; if they do not understand, synchrony is disrupted. In addition to propose and test a model explaining the link between synchrony and interaction quality (synchrony accounts for mutual understanding and good interaction, di-synchrony accounts for misunderstanding) our tests point the fact that synchronisation and di-synchronisation emerging from mutual understanding are fast phenomenons: agents have a quick answer to whether they understand each other or not.