Abstract

Natural conversations usually run smoothly and effortlessly with small gaps and overlaps between the turns of the interacting participants. Measurement of turn-taking timing revealed that interactants often reply within 200 ms after the end of the other’s turn. Such precise timing has challenged current theories of language processing. Several models proposed in recent years have been trying to explain the way short turn-transitions are enabled by the interaction between speech production, comprehension, and particular cognitive processes. Most of these models propose that participants must predict the end of the current speaker’s turn in order to prepare an answer in advance to be able to produce the next turn on time. In this paper, I discuss models of turn-taking and possible predictive processes during conversations.