Conversational rate and communicative competence

Studies of people using VOCAs based on whole-utterance storage and retrieval have provided correlational evidence that enjoyment and perceived communicative competence increase when the pauses preceding a VOCA utterance are shorter. In two recent studies, pause length in recorded VOCA-aided conversations was directly manipulated and the conversations were rated for aspects of communicative competence. In a third study, raters recorded their changing comfort levels while watching video of VOCA conversations retaining their original, variable, pause lengths. The three studies provide strong evidence for a causal relationship between reduced pause length (and increased conversational rate) and perceived communicative competence.