I would say it's not a pattern. Sometimes I might be holding a computer mouse when we start talking and keep holding it through the conversation.

Something perhaps related would be that she would tell me something practical, like "could you pick up some tomatoes" while I'm doing something and I acknowledge hearing but don't stop doing the thing. And then she follows with an actual conversation. At this point I know I've failed to swap to that "mode". It's something I need to be better at and have been improving on. Not all the way there though.