Federica Bartolozzi defends thesis on 24 January

Link to live-stream

During conversations, we sometimes start preparing an answer while the other person is still speaking. This means that conversations can be considered as a dual task. While doing two things at the same time may save us time, it usually comes at a cost, as the performance in one or both tasks may be impacted negatively. In this dissertation, Federica investigated whether linguistic dual-tasking, i.e., combining comprehension and production, has a negative effect on comprehension processes and whether repeating words that have occurred earlier in conversation can help interlocutors ease dual-tasking demands.

The research in this dissertation did not show any negative effects of linguistic dual-tasking on comprehension processes and showed that repetition priming can in principle support conversation, although other mechanisms may be more influential.