Levels of Coordination in Early Semantic Development
The article “Levels of Coordination in Early Semantic Development” by Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi, Nicole Rossmanith, Iris Nomikou and Katharina J. Rohlfing was published in the Psychology of Language and Communication.
Abstract
In this paper, we show that early interaction can be seen as comprising of strands of
coordinated activity on multiple levels and timescales. In tracing the development of such
multilayered organization from an embodied and situated perspective, we underscore
the role of the reliable presence of the structured environment, an enacted niche, supporting
the segregation and integration of participatory interaction strands. This perspective allows
us to study the development of social coordination not only in terms of development
of individual skills but, crucially, as a change of participatory emergent patterns,
a transformation in engagement. We illustrate this approach with some results from
the collaborative research project on Early Semantic Development (EASE). Using
qualitative microanalysis combined with quantitative dynamical time series analyses,
we were able to demonstrate several layers of such organization: from local forms of
coordination, such as basic informational coupling within a modality, and the emergence
of specific social affordances, to more global co-action structures such as affect imbued
‘action arcs’ – dynamic action contours with a beginning, build-up, climax and resolution,
co-enacted by participants. Pointing to future work, we underscore the potential of these
global structures to contribute to the emergence of more complex interactions, such as
composite activities within ‘pragmatic frames’, narratives, or language.
Rączaszek-Leonardi, J., Rossmanith, N., Nomikou, I., Ziembowicz, K., Rohlfing, K., J. (2019). Levels of Coordination in Early Semantic Development. Psychology of Language and Communication. [LINK]