In seminal work, Yarbus examined the characteristic scanpaths that result when viewing an image, observing that scanpaths varied significantly depending on the question posed to the observer. While early efforts examining this hypothesis were equivocal, it has since been established that aspects of an observer’s assigned task may be inferred from their gaze. In this thesis we examine two datasets that have not previously been considered involving prediction of task and observer sentiment respectively. The first of these involves predicting general tasks assigned to observers viewing images, and the other predicting subjective ratings recorded after viewing advertisements. The results present interesting observations on task groupings and affective dimensions of images, and the value of various measurements (gaze or image based) in making these predictions. Analysis also demonstrates the importance of how data is partitioned for predictive analysis, and the complementary nature of gaze specific and image derived features. / May 2016

This thesis is about the resources that speakers can draw on when producing actions, both verbal and non-vocal. It considers how identity categories, gaze and touch can contribute to action in everyday interactions. The study stemmed from an interest in how lesbian identity is made relevant by lesbian speakers in everyday co-present interaction. A corpus of approximately 23.5 hours of video-recordings was gathered: households self-designated as lesbian (including couples, families, and housemates) video recorded some of their everyday interactions (including mealtimes, watching television, and playing board games). Using the tools of Conversation Analysis and working with the video recordings and transcripts of the interactions, several ways of making a lesbian identity relevant through talk were identified. As the analysis progressed, it was found that many references to sexual identity were produced fleetingly; they were not part of or integral to the ongoing talk, and were not taken up as a topic by participants. Rather, this invoking of a participant s sexual identity appears to contribute to a particular action that is being produced. It was found that invokings of other identities, for example relating to occupation, nationality, and race, worked in a similar way, and this is explored in relation to explanations and accounts. Where the first half of the thesis focuses on verbal invokings of identity in relation to action, the second half of the thesis considers some of the non-vocal resources that participants incorporate into their actions. It was found that when launching a topic related to something in the immediate environment, speakers can use gaze to ensure recipiency. Also, when producing potentially face-threatening actions such as teases, reprimands or insults, speakers can use interpersonal touch to mitigate the threat. In addition to showing how identities can be made relevant in everyday interaction, the findings of this thesis highlight the complexity of action design, and that in co-present interaction the physical resources available to participants also need to be taken into account.

ABSTRACT Today our physical appearance is more important than before. The way we physically present ourselves is how many of us would like to be seen. By acting a certain way, dressing a certain way or spend time with a certain social group we identify ourselves. A certain style that an individual presents can say something about what that individual are interested in and how the person spends his or her time. Today many complement their physical appearance with a physical attribute like a beard. Beard is seen as something that is trendy and masculine. Many men identify themselves with their beard, even thou it is only a part of the male physical appearance. In Sweden there is a beard contest called “En Karl Med Skägg” this is an event with an audience that nominates Sweden’s best beard of ten final contestants. Men all over the country apply for the contest. A jury then selects ten men that will be the final contestants for the best beard of Sweden.   This thesis is going to analyze the social meeting that the participants create while participating in the contest and the importance of that meeting to them. While participating in the event, participants give the place of the event a meaning and the place of the event also got a meaning to the participants both socially and geographically. These men create a social place that is time-stretched with an importance to them. This thesis is also going to examine how this type of event symbolizes modern culture and how the male gaze is of higher importance than before historically. The thesis is going to analyze the connection between the male self-identification and participating in a social meeting between others, by appearance similar individuals.

This project chronicles an in-depth character study on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in film. The term was coined in 2007 by a film critic about a very specific kind of female character—one who exists “solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” The MPDG has often been written off as nothing more than a stereotype or sexist characterization of a woman, but I argue that the MPDG can be much more than a flat character, as evidenced by the increasingly complex characterization of the MPDG in independent film. Based on case studies of several films, I discuss how the MPDG has grown from a supporting archetype into a well-rounded and multi-dimensional character. Based on a history of female depiction in film, a discussion of the critical interpretations of the MPDG, and these case studies, I argue that the MPDG has the potential to exist as a complex and realistic character rather than just an archetype.

Although language usually occurs in an interactive and world-situated context (Clark, 1996), most research on language use to date has studied comprehension and production in isolation. This thesis combines research on comprehension and production, and explores the links between them. Its main focus is on the coordination of visual attention between speakers and listeners, as well as the influence this has on the language they use and the ease with which they understand it. Experiment 1 compared participants’ eye movements during comprehension and production of similar sentences: in a syntactic priming task, they first heard a confederate describe an image using active or passive voice, and then described the same kind of picture themselves (cf. Branigan, Pickering, & Cleland, 2000). As expected, the primary influence on eye movements in both tasks was the unfolding sentence structure. In addition, eye movements during target production were affected by the structure of the prime sentence. Eye movements in comprehension were linked more loosely with speech, reflecting the ongoing integration of listeners’ interpretations with the visual context and other conceptual factors. Experiments 2-7 established a novel paradigm to explore how seeing where a speaker was looking during unscripted production would facilitate identification of the objects they were describing in a photographic scene. Visual coordination in these studies was created artificially through an on-screen cursor which reflected the speaker’s original eye movements (cf. Brennan, Chen, Dickinson, Neider, & Zelinsky, 2007). A series of spatial and temporal manipulations of the link between cursor and speech investigated the respective influences of linguistic and visual information at different points in the comprehension process. Implications and potential future applications are discussed, as well as the relevance of this kind of visual cueing to the processing of real gaze in face-to-face interaction.

This dissertation presents an investigation into the notion of the freak in the guise of exotic characters as these appear in the strange creature-figures in Jane Alexander’s (b. 1959) installation artwork African Adventure (1999-2002). The installation artwork reveals issues pertaining to the way in which the exotic nature of the freak is made manifest in its hybrid spatio-temporal nature, with reference also to the understanding that freaks are often presented as strange yet awesome consumer objects. Alexander’s view of art and her oeuvre are contextualised within the South African milieu which is characterised by change, and laced with utopian as well as dystopian sentiments. The interpretation of African Adventure is theoretically entrenched in certain key concepts: the freak, the exotic, and hybridity, as these are made manifest in the reading of the characters, time and place presented in the installation artwork as allegorical reflection of contemporary South African society. The exploration of the work’s spatio-temporal dimensions are guided by establishing a link between, on the one hand, the desire for experiencing the thrill of the unusual (both in terms of a perspective of a colonial safari as well as the contemporary tourist gaze) and, on the other hand, a number of problematic issues in contemporary South African society. I demonstrate that the South African landscape, people and most likely also history are regarded as exotic – with the freakish associations this implies – also because post-apartheid South Africa has the status of a rarity that can be experienced as an adventure landscape. I further demonstrate how the freak’s exotic figuration ironically reverses the experience of empowered looking, with reference here to the notion of spectacle. In a space where contradiction is exposed for contemplation, this ironic reversal in its hybrid embodiment is understood as a space of reconstitution. In this manner, the presumed notion of a stable South African collective is challenged; South African society comprising of so many hybrid identities is rather understood to be the sum of contestible information where the possibility of fragmented experiences of chaos and reconciliation can coexist. As such, cultural reconstitution and renewal are not based on the exoticism of multiculturalism, but on the articulation of a culture’s hybridity. / MA (History of Art), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In her article “Visual pleasure and narrative cinema” (1975) Laura Mulvey explains how film portrays the female characters as passive sexualised objects, on display for the male (erotic) gaze. Although, Mulvey did make amendments to the original article after it was criticised, her original article is still influential and referenced in academic writing on film. This dissertation investigates how the three selected mainstream American films, namely, Alice in Wonderland, Monster and Transamerica, have female protagonists who deviate from Mulvey’s initial standpoint and enact a new dynamic, whereby the female characters possess active bodies. In order to explain this new dynamic, the dissertation provides an overview of relevant theory in order to establish the necessary analytical tools to investigate the representation of the female body. These tools are taken from feminist notions of the body, most importantly Mulvey’s notions, in order to establish what constitutes an active female body that subverts the male gaze. This subversion is most notable when examining the iconography of the active female body. The dissertation also draws from the overview the importance of place and space, the embodiment of the characters’ inner workings in specific locations, and their relationship with the locations in which they are depicted. Since all three films include a physical journey on which the respective protagonists embark the examination of borders and border crossings is included. The dissertation shows that journeys bring with them the opportunity for the body to be active, as each female protagonist is on a journey to self-discovery. The changing settings in which the protagonists find themselves are an embodiment of their inner workings. Topographical borders mark the entering of new locations. However, concomitant symbolic and epistemological borders are also crossed. The female protagonists need to make choices concerning their lives and as a consequence alter the representations to reflect bodies that subvert the male gaze. These female bodies are active. However, they are active in different ways. Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, delves into her psyche to emerge a changed and independent Victorian woman. Bree, from Transamerica, heals the relationships with her family and is able to have her gender reconstructive surgery to become a physical woman. These two female protagonists have positive representations of the active female body. The protagonist from Monster, Aileen, is represented in a constant state of abjection and her active body is portrayed in a negative light. Whether represented in a positive or egative light, these chosen films all portray an active female body that does subvert the male gaze, and hence represent a new dynamic different from the one Mulvey described. / MA (Language Practice), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Undesirable landing area (e. g. , a hole, a fragment of glass, a water puddle, etc) creates the necessity for an alternate foot placement planning and execution. Previous study has proposed that three determinants are used by the central nervous system (CNS) for planning an alternate foot placement: minimum foot displacement, stability and maintenance of forward progression. However, validation of these determinants is lacking. Therefore, the general purpose of the series of studies presented here is to validate and test the generality of the decision algorithm of alternate foot placement selection developed previously. The first study was designed to validate the use of a virtual planar obstacle paradigm and the economy assumption behind minimum foot displacement determinant. Participants performed two blocks of trials. In one block, they were instructed to avoid stepping in a virtual planar obstacle projected in the screen of a LCD monitor embedded in the ground. In another block, they were instructed to avoid stepping in a real hole present in walkway. Behavioral response was unaffected by the presence of a real hole. In addition, it was suggested that minimum foot displacement results in minimum changes in EMG activity which validates the economy determinant. The second study was proposed to validate the stability determinant. Participants performed an avoidance task under two conditions: free and forced. In the free condition participants freely chose where to land in order to avoid stepping in a virtual obstacle. In the forced condition, a green arrow was projected over the obstacle indicating the direction of the alternate foot placement. The data from the free condition was used to determine the preferred alternate foot placement whereas the data from the forced condition was used to assess whole body stability. It was found that long and lateral foot placements are preferred because they result in a more stable behavior. The third study was designed to validate the alternate foot placement model in a more complex terrain. Participants were required to avoid stepping in two virtual planar obstacles placed in sequence. It was found that participants used the strategy of planning the avoidance movement globally and additional determinants were used. One of the additional determinants was implementation feasibility. In the third study, gaze behavior was also monitored and two behaviors emerged from this data. One sub-group of participants fixated on the area stepped during adaptive step, whereas another sub-group anchor their gaze in a spot ahead of the area-to-be avoided and used peripheral vision for controlling foot landing. In summary, this thesis validates the three determinants for the alternate foot placement planning model and extends the previous model to more complex terrains.

Previous research has suggested that viewing of another’s averted eye gaze causes automatic orienting of attention and eye movements in observers due to the importance of eye gaze for effective social interaction. Other types of visual cues with no social or biological relevance, such as arrows, are claimed not to produce such a direct effect on orienting behaviour. The finding that processing of eye gaze is reduced in individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorders as well as following damage to the orbitofrontal cortex of the brain, suggests that gaze processing is indeed critical for effective social behaviour and therefore eye gaze may constitute a “special” directional cue. This thesis tested these ideas by examining the influence of socio-biological (eye gaze and finger pointing) and non-social cues (arrows and words) on eye movement responses in both healthy control participants and those with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain. It further investigated the relationship between orienting to gaze and arrow cues and autistic traits in a healthy population. Important differences between the effects of socio-biological and non-social cues were found on saccadic eye movements. Although in the pro-saccade tasks, arrow cues caused a similar facilitation of responses in the cued direction as eye gaze and pointing cues, in the anti-saccade tasks (in which participants have to respond away from the location of a peripheral onset), arrows had a greatly reduced effect on oculomotor programming relative to the biologically relevant cues. Importantly, although the socio-biological cues continued to influence saccadic responses, the facilitation was in the opposite direction to the cues. This finding suggests that the cues were being processed within the same "anti-response" task set (i.e. "go opposite") as the target stimulus. Word cues had almost no effects on saccadic orienting in either pro- or anti-saccade tasks. Schematicised eye gaze cues had a smaller magnitude effect than photographic gaze cues suggesting that ecological validity ("biological-ness") is an important factor in influencing oculomotor responses to social cues. No relationship was found between autistic traits and orienting to gaze or arrow cues in a large sample of males. However, findings from the neurological patients point to a possible double-dissociation between the neural mechanisms subserving processing of socio-biological and non-social cues, with the former reliant on the orbitofrontal cortex, and the latter on lateral frontal cortex. Taken together, these results suggest that biologically relevant cues have privileged access to the oculomotor system. The findings are interpreted in terms of a neurocognitive model of saccadic orienting to socio-biological and non-social cues, and an extension to an existing model of saccade generation is proposed. Finally, limitations of the research, its wider impact and directions for future work are discussed.

Knowing where and when to look is critical for effective performance of visually guided tasks. A gaze strategy termed the quiet eye (QE; the final gaze before the onset of a critical movement) is strongly associated with motor skill proficiency, with earlier and longer QE periods leading to improved visuomotor control. Children with poor motor proficiency, such as those with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), have impairments in the pick-up and processing of visual information, translating into poorly coordinated movements. The purpose of this project therefore was to perform the first examination of the QE strategy in children of different motor coordination abilities and furthermore to investigate the efficacy of task-specific QE training (QET) to improve the skills of children with and without DCD beyond the effects of a standard coaching technique. Study 1 determined that children with low motor coordination had later, shorter QE durations in comparison to coordinated children and as a result, performed worse in a specified motor task (throwing and catching). Study 2 therefore performed two experiments aimed at developing an appropriate but brief QET protocol for children to improve their throwing and catching ability. These experiments found that typically developing children were able to increase their QE durations with QET and this was reflected in a durable improvement in their motor skill execution. The final study examined this QET intervention in children with DCD. This was the first application of QET in a clinical population, and found that children with DCD were able to improve their QE durations, and make robust changes to their visuomotor control. These studies associate a longer QE with motor skill proficiency in children, and provide an important adjunct to current therapeutic intervention for children with poorly developed motor skills.