Interactive Communication -- cross-disciplinary perspectives from psychology, acoustics, and media technology

TL;DR

This cross-disciplinary primer addresses how interactive communication is shaped by psychological mechanisms and media-technology constraints across face-to-face, video, and VR contexts. It integrates theory, measurement, and applications, outlining verbal/nonverbal modalities, multimodal integration, and domain-specific technologies such as ALDs, conversational agents, and social VR. Key contributions include a formal definition of IC, a dual theoretical framework, comprehensive measurement approaches, and an agenda for ethical design and future work in VR-based, AI-driven communication. The work highlights the need for human-centered, transparent, and inclusive IC systems that balance technical capabilities with social and ethical considerations to enhance real-time coordination across physical and virtual spaces.

Abstract

Interactive communication (IC), i.e., the reciprocal exchange of information between two or more interactive partners, is a fundamental part of human nature. As such, it has been studied across multiple scientific disciplines with different goals and methods. This article provides a cross-disciplinary primer on contemporary IC that integrates psychological mechanisms with acoustic and media-technological constraints across theory, measurement, and applications. First, we outline theoretical frameworks that account for verbal, nonverbal and multimodal aspects of IC, including distinctions between face-to-face and computer-mediated communication. Second, we summarize key methodological approaches, including behavioral, cognitive, and experiential measures of communicative synchrony and acoustic signal quality. Third, we discuss selected applications, i.e. assistive listening technologies, conversational agents, alongside ethical considerations. Taken together, this review highlights how human capacities and technical systems jointly shape IC, consolidating concepts, findings, and challenges that have often been discussed in separate lines of research.