The pointing gesture is regarded as indicating an object or
location in the environment. People sometimes point to
invisible objects, but the inferential mechanism is not known.
This study examined comprehension of pointing with a bent
index finger at an invisible object behind a wall. The
experimenter pointed at an object using either typical pointing
or “enforced pointing” behind a wall that was either opaque
or transparent. In enforced pointing, the experimenter moved
his arm in an arc movement. The participants guessed which
object was being denoted. The wall was also either relatively
high or relatively low. When the participants looked at typical
pointing, they thought that objects both in front of the wall
and behind the wall were being denoted. However, when they
looked at enforced pointing, they more frequently thought that
objects behind the wall were denoted. People seemed to use
pragmatic knowledge on this “enforced” pointing gesture.