Abstract
The present study examines the visual recognition of action simulations by finger gestures (ASFGs) produced by sighted and blind individuals. In ASFGs, fingers simulate legs to represent actions such as jumping, spinning, climbing, etc. The question is to determine whether the common motor experience of one’s own body is sufficient to produce adequate ASFGs or whether the possibility to see gestures from others are also necessary to do it. Three experiments were carried out to address this question. Experiment 1 examined in 74 sighted adults the recognition of 18 types of ASFGs produced by 20 blindfolded sighted adults. Results showed that rates of correct recognition were globally very high, but varied with the type of ASFG. Experiment 2 studied in 91 other sighted adults the recognition of ASFGs produced by 10 early blind and 7 late blind adults. Results also showed a high level of recognition with a similar order of recognizability by type of ASFG. However, ASFGs produced by early blind individuals were more poorly recognized than those produced by late blind individuals. In order to match data of recognition obtained with the form that gestures are produced by individuals, two independant judges evaluated prototypical and atypical attributes of ASFG produced by blindfolded sighted, early blind and late blind individuals in Experiment 3. Results revealed the occurrence of more atypical attributes in ASFG produced by blind individuals: their ASFGs transpose more body movements from a character-viewpoint in less agreement with visual rules. The practical interest of the study relates to the relevance of including ASFGs as a new exploratory procedure in tactile devices which are more apt to convey action concepts to blind users/readers.
Highlights
Gestures are movements made by the hand or body, meant to express or clarify spoken content [1,2,3]
We studied the relevance of including action simulations by finger gestures (ASFGs) to illustrate the contents of tactile books for the blind
We observed that mean rates of recognition were very high for most of these: 9 simulated action simulations were recognized at a rate between 80–100%, 7 between 60–80% and only 2 between 60–40%
Summary
Gestures are movements made by the hand or body, meant to express or clarify spoken content [1,2,3]. Studies have shown that reactivation of motor components involved in interactions with objects (enactment effect) can facilitate learning and memorization of concepts [16, 17] These components can help in processing contents in the context of blindness. In order to validate this idea, it is first necessary to know whether a simulation process that transposes the experiences of the legs by imitating their actions with the fingers is meaningful for blind as well for sighted individuals. If visual representations and visual experience do not play a role, similar prototypical patterns of ASFGs would be observed in early blind, late blind and in blindfolded sighted. Three experiments were carried out to examine the occurrence of “Action Simulations by Finger Gestures–ASFG” in blind and sighted adults and their visual recognition by adults. Some errors of interpretation can be expected among actions which have a similar appearance, such as Squatting and Sitting or Skating and Skiing
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