Making a glance an action: Doctors' quick looks at their desk-top computer screens

Abstract

This paper investigates the communicative potential of quick glances at objects in a very particular setting, namely when doctors turn their head briefly to look at their desk-top computer screen while they interact with patients during general practice consultations. The study proposes that these glances often are demonstrably produced to be more than means to acquire information; they are communicative actions that indexically enact a reference to (content on) the computer in support of something the doctor says or does - at the moment or subsequently. In particular, the paper identifies three different kinds of glances: silent glances, glances produced alongside talk, and glances produced in conjunction with pointing gestures and talk. Each type may be produced as a communicative action in its own way. The paper also illustrates how doctors' glances at their computer screens are produced as intrinsic parts of recurrent consultation activities such as test result deliveries, history-takings, and treatment recommendations etc. Overall, the study offers knowledge about the distribution, coordination and organization of glances, and about how doctors use their computers during consultations.