The comparative utility of three types of behavioral units for interaction analysis

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Abstract
This study considers types of units of interactive behavior by contrasting time units and two kinds of natural units, utterances and thought units. An empirical investigation into comparative reliabilities and data distributions obtained when employing time units, utterances, and thought units on the same set of transcripts is reported. Generally, both the thought and utterance units possess the greatest utility for interaction analysis research, although each generates a data distribution different from the other.