Keeping an eye on gestures: Visual perception of gestures in face-to-face communication

TY - JOUR

T1 - Keeping an eye on gestures: Visual perception of gestures in face-to-face communication

AU - Gullberg, Marianne

AU - Holmqvist, Kenneth

N1 - The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003), Humanities Lab (015101200)

PY - 1999

Y1 - 1999

N2 - Since listeners usually look at the speaker's face, gestural information has to be absorbed through peripheral visual perception. In the literature, it has been suggested that listeners look at gestures under certain circumstances: 1) when the articulation of the gesture is peripheral; 2) when the speech channel is insufficient for comprehension; and 3) when the speaker him- or herself indicates that the gesture is worthy of attention. The research here reported employs eye tracking techniques to study the perception of gestures in face-to-face interaction. The improved control over the listener's visual channel allows us to test the validity of the above claims. We present preliminary findings substantiating claims 1 and 3, and relate them to theoretical proposals in the literature and to the issue of how visual and cognitive attention are related.

AB - Since listeners usually look at the speaker's face, gestural information has to be absorbed through peripheral visual perception. In the literature, it has been suggested that listeners look at gestures under certain circumstances: 1) when the articulation of the gesture is peripheral; 2) when the speech channel is insufficient for comprehension; and 3) when the speaker him- or herself indicates that the gesture is worthy of attention. The research here reported employs eye tracking techniques to study the perception of gestures in face-to-face interaction. The improved control over the listener's visual channel allows us to test the validity of the above claims. We present preliminary findings substantiating claims 1 and 3, and relate them to theoretical proposals in the literature and to the issue of how visual and cognitive attention are related.

KW - visual perception

KW - gesture

KW - interaction

KW - eye movements

U2 - 10.1075/pc.7.1.04gul

DO - 10.1075/pc.7.1.04gul

M3 - Article

VL - 7

SP - 35

EP - 63

JO - Pragmatics and Cognition

JF - Pragmatics and Cognition

SN - 0929-0907

IS - 1

ER -