The relation between backchannel utterance and idea-generation has hardly been studied. Based on preliminary investigations, we formulated a hypothesis that a listener's backchannel utterances facilitate a speaker's idea-generation. This study experimentally manipulated the frequency of backchannel utterances by listeners during speakers' idea-generation for think-aloud tasks. 16 Japanese female undergraduates participated. Analysis indicated that frequent backchannel utterances increased not only the number of ideas generated but also the speaking time for the tasks.
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