Multimodal language processing in human communication

Abstract

The natural ecology of human language is face-to-face interaction comprising the exchange of a plethora of multimodal signals. Trying to understand the psycholinguistic processing of language in its natural niche raises new issues, first and foremost the binding of multiple, temporally offset signals under tight time constraints posed by a turn-taking system. This might be expected to overload and slow our cognitive system, but the reverse is in fact the case. We propose cognitive mechanisms that may explain this phenomenon and call for a multimodal, situated psycholinguistic framework to unravel the full complexities of human language processing.