Survey of Automated Methods for Nonverbal Behavior Analysis in Parent-Child Interactions

Abstract

Social interactions are fundamental for human beings, motivating the abundance of studies into the behavioral correlates of constructs such as personality and relationship. The primary drivers of this research are video-taped recordings of interactions. Recent advancements in automatic behavior analysis provide a cost-effective and more objective alternative to manual coding by trained experts. Still, the use of automated analysis is far from trivial. In this literature survey, we discuss the current state-of-the-art in automated parent-child interaction analysis, and critically assess opportunities and limitations. We focus on parent-child interactions as they reflect various aspects of a child's development, and provide distinct challenges for the automated measurement and interpretation of the interactive behavior. We briefly discuss single-person and dyadic nonverbal measurements, and identify measurement challenges. We then provide an overview of various developmental constructs that can be measured through the classification of extracted cues. Finally, we outline persistent limitations of the current state-of-the-art, and we highlight promising directions to bridge the gap between manual and automated measurements.