Dialogue & Discourse 12(1) (2021) 21–44 doi: 10.5210/dad.2021.102 Cognitive and social delays in the initiation of conversational repair Julia Mertens J ULIA.MERTENS@TUFTS. EDU Tufts University, Medford, MA, 02155 Jan P. de Ruiter JP. DERUITER@TUFTS. EDU Tufts University, Medford, MA, 02155 Editor: Patrick G.T. Healey Submitted 04/2020; Accepted 01/2021; Published online 03/2021 Abstract The exact timing of a conversational turn conveys important information to listeners. Most turns are initiated within 250ms after the previous turn. However, interlocutors take longer to initiate certain types of turns: those that either require more cognitive processing or are socially dispre- ferred. Many dispreferred turns are also cognitively demanding, so it is difficult to attribute specific conversational delays to social or cognitive mechanisms. In this paper, we evaluate how cognitive and social variables contribute to the timing of utterances in conversation. We focus on a type of turn that is socially dispreferred, cognitively demanding, and generally delayed: other-initiations of repair (OIRs). OIRs occur when a listener notices and decides to signal a comprehension problem (e.g., “What?”). We analyzed the Floor Transfer Offsets of 456 OIRs. Interlocutors initiated OIRs later when trouble source turns had weaker discourse context or were shorter. We found cognitive effects of trouble source duration and discourse context: a longer duration or stronger context was associated with shorter OIR FTOs. We also found social effects of problem attribution and size: when the problem could be attributed to the environment or was smaller, OIR FTOs were shorter. Discourse context, planning, and social attribution manifest in the timing of turns. Keywords: Other-initiated repair, prediction, floor transfer offset, preference organization, turn taking 1. Introduction Humans develop and maintain relationships through conversation. In fact, conversation is ubiqui- tous: children acquire language by interacting with their parents and peers, and coworkers increase their social coherence by chatting around the water cooler. However, conversation is not as effortless as it seems. On the contrary, conversation is an advanced cognitive skill. Interlocutors must perform many tasks at once. Speakers coordinate their words, prosody, and other non- and para-verbal sig- nals to form messages tailored to their recipient and the context. Listeners integrate that information into their discourse record as they plan their response. At the same time, all interlocutors update their common ground, which involves accessing both their short-term and long-term memory. To perform all these tasks at once, conversants draw heavily on cognitive resources. These taxing cognitive tasks are also time sensitive. Interlocutors aim to minimize gaps and overlaps (Sacks et al., 1978). As a consequence, speakers usually begin their turn within 250ms of ©2021 Julia Mertens and Jan P. de Ruiter This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License (http : //creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).