Hand-Mouth Coordination in a Pointing Task Requiring Manual Precision
Published in Proceedings of the 12th ISSP, 2020
Recommended citation: Ćwiek, A., & Fuchs, S. (2020). Hand-Mouth Coordination in a Pointing Task Requiring Manual Precision. Proceedings of the 12th ISSP. 12th International Seminar on Speech Production, New Haven, CT: Haskins Laboratories. http://olacwiek.github.io/files/ISSP_Cwiek_Fuchs.pdf
In daily life, articulatory movements and pointing gestures are tightly coupled. Nevertheless, the two motor systems governing the movements of the articulators and hands differ in their dynamics: the articulators are fast and much lighter than the limbs, which are slower due to their mass. We investigated the timely coordination of those motor systems in a pointing task requiring manual precision. In our experiment, the initial segment was always [p], allowing the participants for early articulatory preparation. Most importantly, we found that the hand gesture onset precedes the onset of the articulatory gesture. We also found that some speakers begin the articulatory movement only after reaching the hand gesture target. Overall, our data reveal that when the articulatory movement is not audible, as it is the case of [p], speakers are very flexible in the coordination between hand and mouth.