The influence of handedness and pointing direction on deictic gestures and speech interaction: Evidence from motion capture data on Polish counting-out rhymes

Abstract

Does handedness influence pointing gestures? Within the scope of our study, we investigated the influence of handedness, in this case dominant vs. non-dominant hand, on pointing gestures in Polish counting-out rhymes under two conditions: fast and normal speech. For this, pointing gestures of the index finger were recorded with a motion capture system. Speech acoustics was recorded simultaneously. We hypothesized that a detailed analysis of individual gestures would reveal different kinematic patterns for the dominant versus non-dominant hand. Moreover, we expected that pointing towards the addressee would differ from pointing towards the origo (the speaker), since the pointing hand is part of origo and different muscle synergies are involved. Results of our study revealed shorter duration of pointing gestures and higher peak velocities under time pressure. Higher velocity peaks were also found for pointing with the dominant hand in comparison to the non-dominant hand, in particular while pointing to the addressee. These findings suggest that hand gestures adapt to temporal constraints, and provide first insights that handedness and pointing direction have an impact on kinematic properties of deictic gestures.

Infant vocal productions coincide with body movements

“…Canonical babbling emerges during a period of rhythmic manual activity ( Burkhardt-Reed et al, 2021 ; Cobo-Lewis et al, 1996 ; Ejiri & Masataka, 2001 ; Iverson & Wozniak, 2007 ; Locke et al, 1995 ; Thelen, 1979 ) and the emergence of these rhythmic arm movements precede the onset of canonical babbling ( Iverson & Fagan, 2004 ). In adults, manual gestures can become entrained to speech patterns such that gesture and speech slow concurrently ( Pouw & Dixon, 2019 ; Stoltmann & Fuchs, 2017 ) and can become entrained through visual feedback ( Pouw et al, 2021 ; Pouw, Harrison, & Dixon, 2020 ; Pouw, Harrison, Esteve-Gibert, et al, 2020 ; Pouw, Paxton, et al, 2020 ).…”