Does the number of syllables affect the finger pointing movement in a pointing-naming task?

This study analyses the finger-pointing gesture in a pointing-naming (PN) task for a group of native speakers of Brazilian and a group of native speakers of French. It shows that the increase of the number of syllables (n-syl.) in the target name slightly delays the timing of the finger gesture toward the target. The duration of that gesture also tends to be shorter for 1- and 2- syllable(s) in the PN task rather than in a pointing-alone (P) task. Finally, the finger-target alignment is globally longer for the P task than for the PN task. This duration then gradually increases with the increase of n-syl. in the PN task. These results reproduce the main published results showing that speech/pointing coordination is mainly achieved by ‘on line’ adaptation of speech and ‘off-line’ adaptation of the finger. Yet, the results also suggest that speech could ‘calibrate’ the fingerpointing gesture. Hence, in the simultaneous designation of a target, speech and hand should be considered as two ‘collaborative’ rather than two ‘competitive’ systems.