[LudoHK]

I thinks its taking place a bit everywhere, and often without noticing.

For example, How many time you call a coworker to help you out on a struggle, and just by explaining to him the process, you are finding out the problem. Your coworker was a rubber duck for few minutes.

To answer to your questions, I had never personally seen a guy talking to a rubber duck(or any other object), but I have seen, many times, successful debugging just by explaining aloud the process without any input from the listener.