Reducing face touching through haptic feedback: A treatment evaluation against fomite-mediated self-infection.

Fomite-mediated self-infection via face touching is an understudied transmission pathway for infectious diseases. We evaluated the effect of computer-mediated vibrotactile cues (presented through experimental bracelets located on one or both hands of the participant) on the frequency of face touching among eight healthy adults in the community. We conducted a treatment evaluation totaling over 25,000 min of video observation.

Predicting One's Turn With Both Body and Mind: Anticipatory Speech Postures During Dyadic Conversation.

In natural conversation, turns are handed off quickly, with the mean downtime commonly ranging from 7 to 423 ms. To achieve this, speakers plan their upcoming speech as their partner's turn unfolds, holding the audible utterance in abeyance until socially appropriate. The role played by prediction is debated, with some researchers claiming that speakers predict upcoming speech opportunities, and others claiming that speakers wait for detection of turn-final cues.

Anticipatory mechanisms influence articulation in the form preparation task.

In the form preparation task, participants verbally produce words in small sets, which either overlap on an early phonological fragment or contrast on that fragment. A canonical account of word-form encoding assumes a sequential phonological encoding phase necessarily preceding subsequent retrieval of a discrete phonetic motor plan. This account assumes that acoustic onset and speech onset are equivalent, and that speech onset never precedes complete processing of the stimulus.