Question about typical conversational practice

[Rain G. Bosworth]

Folks:

Is there any published reference validating this statement below
about eye contact during conversations between signers?   Can anyone
give me a reference?

Participants in a signed conversation tend to fixate upon each
other's faces rather than track the movement of the hands.  (I
presume this practice is done, in part, as cultural etiquette and in
order to glean information about facial expressions.  And,
presumably, this is true of highly fluent/native signers; non-native
signers or novices, on the other hand, may track the hands.)

Appreciate it,
Rain




--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Rain Grant Bosworth
Lab: voice (858) 822-0541; TTY (858) 822-3327
Home: (817) 732-0084
Infant Vision Laboratory
Psychology Department, 0109
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093
website: http://psy.ucsd.edu/~rbosworth
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -