Understand the research that informs conversation measurement
If you're asking a client to listen more carefully, it helps to explain what to practice. You might focus on letting an answer finish or reflecting back a concern before responding. Research on conversation gives you ways to describe those behaviors and examine how an exchange develops.
Rapport Score draws on established communication concepts to organize measured feedback and support practice. The three areas below relate to its analysis. Follow the original sources to understand what each examines, then consider how the ideas can help you review a conversation with your client.
How a conversation passes between speakers
Harvey Sacks, Emanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson's 1974 research described how speakers organize turns in conversation. Their model examined how the next speaker is selected and how a turn can pass from one speaker to another. It provides a foundation for studying the structure of an exchange as it happens. Read the original paper.
Rapport Score measures turn-taking and response timing. In your coaching, these measures can help you locate an exchange worth reviewing: a reply that began early, a pause that gave a client room to continue, or a stretch where one speaker held the floor. The practical question is how that moment served the conversation's purpose. A briefing, a coaching session, and a discussion among colleagues give you different reasons to speak or make space.
How listening becomes observable
Motivational interviewing research offers structured ways to examine listening and responses. The Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity code, or MITI, includes behavior counts and broader ratings used to assess how a practitioner conducts motivational interviewing. Moyers and colleagues describe the revised instrument and its initial reliability and validity findings in their 2016 paper. Read the research.
Rapport Score's measurement framework includes reflective listening and MITI-related classification. These concepts help focus attention on how a response engages with what was said. In a coaching review, you might examine whether your client's response captured a concern accurately and whether the next reply supported that reading. It's a useful way to turn “listen better” into something you can discuss and rehearse.
The cited study evaluates MITI. Assessing Rapport Score's automated use of related concepts requires evidence about the platform's implementation and intended use. Validation & Limitations explains the questions to ask when reviewing a result.
How language becomes coordinated
Kate Niederhoffer and James Pennebaker's 2002 study examined linguistic style matching, or LSM, in paired interactions. The researchers found coordination in language use at both the conversation and turn-by-turn levels. In those studies, matching was unrelated to participants' and judges' ratings of interaction quality. That finding matters when deciding what matching can tell you about an exchange. Read the original study.
Rapport Score includes LSM among its measurements. Use it to examine language coordination, then listen to the exchange and consider the task under discussion. To understand the quality of the relationship, you'll need further context from your client. That keeps the coaching question connected to what the measurement actually describes.
Bring the research into a useful review
These approaches give you questions you can work with. How did the speaker respond? What received attention? Where did the exchange change direction? Rapport Score connects measurements to recorded moments so you can explore those questions with a client and choose a skill to practice.
As a coach or trainer, you bring the goal, the relationship, and the practical judgment. The platform gives you measured material to examine and tools to carry the work into another attempt. What We Measure explains how the seven Rapport Dimensions organize the feedback.
Choose a familiar recording and explore the behavior behind a result. You'll be able to connect the concepts here to an exchange you can hear for yourself.