Adaptions in Eye-Movement Behavior during Face-to-face Conversations in Noise

In face-to-face conversations, gaze serves a dual role: it conveys non-verbal messages and helps perceive visual cues that aid speech comprehension and facilitate smooth turn-taking. Typically, listeners focus their gaze on the current talker to signal interest in taking the next turn, while talkers monitor listeners for signs of engagement. However, how these gaze patterns adapt to challenging acoustic environments remains poorly understood. In this study, ten groups of three young, normal-hearing Danish participants engaged in six discussions on various topics, each lasting approximately seven minutes. During these conversations, participants’ eye movements were recorded using wearable eye-tracking glasses. The difficulty of the conversation was manipulated using two levels of eight-talker background noise (‘8-talker babble’). Each group conducted three conversations in noise and three in quiet conditions. The analysis revealed that in noisy settings, participants increased their gaze towards their conversational partners and exhibited more frequent eye movements. Additionally, gaze patterns became more synchronized with and predictive of turn-taking behavior. Specifically, participants showed less gaze avoidance at the start of a turn, and both listeners and talkers increased their gaze towards the next talker at the end of a turn. Overall, the presence of background noise significantly influenced gaze behavior, suggesting an increased reliance on visual cues for managing turn-taking and comprehending speech. These findings underscore the importance of gaze behavior in communication and highlight its potential to inform the development of communication aids and strategies for improving interactions in noisy environments, particularly for individuals with communication difficulties.