In this paper, we investigate prosodic alignment in task-based conversations. We use the HCRC Map Task Corpus and investigate how familiarity affects prosodic alignment and how task success is related to prosodic alignment. A variety of existing alignment measures is used and applied to our data. In particular, a windowed cross-correlation procedure, that has been used previously in visual behavior resaearch, is applied to our prosodic data. In addition, we address the issue of how to separate genuine observed alignment as a result from speaker-specific behavior in the data from alignment as a result of random coincidental behavior. Using these measures, we find some indications of prosodic convergence and synchrony in our task-based conversations. Alignment tendencies are strongest for intensity, and familiarity seems to play a role in convergence. Finally, weak evidence was found for a correlation between prosodic alignment measures and task succcess.

Index Terms: prosodic alignment, convergence, synchrony, familiarity