Texting, e-mailing, IMing, DMing. These methods are great ways to ___1___—but they also carry the risk of miscommunication. The lack of vocal ___2___ is one reason, but there are other more subtle cues we lack in digital conversation.

In a recent study, seven pairs of subjects controlled virtual avatars. One avatar described a word without mentioning the actual word. For example, for the word "water," you might say "wet." The other avatar tried to guess the word

Researchers found the pairs were much more successful in communicating the word when both avatars used hand gestures, as opposed to when one, or both, of the two avatars ___3___.

The study is in the journal Public Library of Science One.

In a second experiment the researchers had some of the “guessing” avatars ___4___ as pre-recorded animations. So the avatars’ gestures while listening did not necessarily match the gestures of real listeners. And their communication was less successful than pairs that ___5___ with genuine gestures.

The study provides evidence that communication is really two-way. And that active listening, with appropriate gestures, can be as important for understanding as what’s being said.

【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
keep in touch inflection stayed completely still portrayed interacted
发短信、发邮件、网上聊天、玩游戏等等等等都是保持联系的好方法——同时也有可能误传信息。听不到对方声音是一个原因，在这种数字交谈中我们还缺少很多提示。 最近一项研究中，7对研究对象控制图标然后交流。其中一个人描述词义，另一个人猜。例如一个人设置“wet”图标，另一个人猜“water”。 研究人员发现，两个人都使用手势图标的人沟通起来更有默契，只有一个人用或者两个都不用，那沟通起来就没那么顺利。 《公共科学图书馆•综合》上刊登了这项研究报告。 另一项实验中，研究人员让猜词一方设置预先录制的图像，因此在猜词过程中，手势图像就会和对方描述不匹配，效果也就没有一问一答比手势的组好了。 这项研究表明，交流是双向的。和说话内容相比，认真听对方说话，外加适当的手势对于理解对方来说也一样重要。