Chimpanzee gesture exchanges share similar turn-taking patterns to human conversations

Jul 22. () –

Researchers at the University of St Andrews have published an article in the journal ‘Current Biology’ in which they reveal that Chimpanzee gesture exchanges share similar turn-taking patterns to human conversations.

The study recalls that human beings regularly participate in efficient communicative conversations, that serve to socially align individuals.

In conversations, humans take turns at a rapid pace using a universal human signal-sending and signal-receiving structure that shows consistent timing across cultures.

The paper finds that chimpanzees also take turns rapidly during face-to-face gestural exchanges with an average latency between turns similar to that in human conversation.

This correspondence between face-to-face communication between humans and chimpanzees points to shared underlying rules in communication.

These structures could derive from shared ancestral mechanisms or convergent strategies that enhance coordinated interactions or manage competition for communicative space.

Research indicates that Many animal species use the turn-taking system to communicate, But in most well-studied systems interlocutors exchange signals outside of face-to-face interaction, including long-distance vocal exchanges and short-distance contact calls.

An exception is ape gestural communication, in which signals are used in a face-to-face setting to make a series of imperative requests.

The researchers note that the sequences of events in which signaling apes produce a gesture and the recipient responds by changing their behavior have been paralleled to human conversational turns, with the latency between signal and behavioral response sometimes approaching 200 ms between human conversational turns (up to 2,000 ms in apes).

However, in a human conversation both participants exchange communicative signals (words or signs) and Exchange typically represents more than a simple signal-response paradigm: it includes clarification, persuasion, and negotiation between interactants.

The study concludes that the similarity in the temporal structure of chimpanzee gestural exchanges suggests mechanisms shared with human conversation.

“The species-level consistency in such rapid synchronization (and even occasional overlaps of signals) indicates that interacting chimpanzees may be responding before fully processing the entire signal.as seen in common interruptions in human conversation,” the researchers say.