TY  - JOUR
A1  - Krause, Lisa-Marie
A1  - Herbort, Oliver
T1  - Just visual context or part of the gesture? The role of arm orientation in bent pointing interpretation
JF  - Acta Psychologica
N2  - Pointing gestures can take on different shapes. For example, people often point with a bent wrist at a referent that is occluded by another object. We hypothesized that while the extrapolation of the index finger is the most important visual cue in such bent pointing gestures, arm orientation is affecting interpretations as well. We tested two competing hypotheses. First, the arm could be processed as a less reliable but additional direction cue also indicating the referent. Consequently, the index finger extrapolation would be biased towards the arm direction (assimilation effect). Second, the arm could be perceived as visual context of the index finger, leading to an interpretation that is repulsed from the arm direction (contrast effect). To differentiate between both, we conducted two experiments in which arm and finger orientation of a virtual pointer were independently manipulated. Participants were asked to determine the pointed-at location. As expected, participants based their interpretations on the extrapolation of the index finger. In line with the second hypothesis, the more the arm was oriented upwards, the lower the point was interpreted and vice versa. Thus, interpretation pattern indicated a contrast effect. Unexpectedly, gestures with aligned arm and index finger deviated from the general contrast effect and were interpreted linearly compared to bent gestures. In sum, the experiments show that interpretations of bent pointing gestures are not only based on the direction of the index finger but also depend on the arm orientation and its relationship to the index finger orientation.
KW  - pointing interpretation
KW  - non-verbal communication
KW  - bent pointing
KW  - contrast effect
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-349839
VL  - 241
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Herbort, Oliver
A1  - Krause, Lisa-Marie
A1  - Kunde, Wilfried
T1  - Perspective determines the production and interpretation of pointing gestures
JF  - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
N2  - Pointing is a ubiquitous means of communication. Nevertheless, observers systematically misinterpret the location indicated by pointers. We examined whether these misunderstandings result from the typically different viewpoints of pointers and observers. Participants either pointed themselves or interpreted points while assuming the pointer’s or a typical observer perspective in a virtual reality environment. The perspective had a strong effect on the relationship between pointing gestures and referents, whereas the task had only a minor influence. This suggests that misunderstandings between pointers and observers primarily result from their typically different viewpoints.
KW  - pointing gestures
KW  - pointing production and interpretation
KW  - deictic reference
KW  - virtual reality
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235293
SN  - 1069-9384
VL  - 28
ER  -