The effect of visual information on verbal communication process in remote conversation

This article examined how visual information affects verbal communication process in remote communication. In the experiment twenty pairs of subjects performed a collaborative task remotely via video and audio links or audio link only. During the task used in this experiment one of a pair (an instruction-giver) gave direction with a map to the other of the pair (an instruction-receiver). We recorded and analyzed contents of utterances. Consequently, the existence of visual information did not influence the efficiency of communication. Meanwhile, we obtained the following results about the contents of utterance. On the one side, the instruction-giver communicating via video and audio links tended to give more feedback than instruction-giver communicating via audio link only. On the other side, the instruction-receiver communicating via video and audio links tended to be confirming a lot rather than instruction-receiver communicating via audio link only. Furthermore, the instruction-receivers communicating via video and audio links tended to have more words in one utterance. These results suggested that the existence of visual information affected the strategy of verbal communication