"Originally developed by the now-defunct Kobe Railroad Administration Bureau in the late Meiji Period (the early 20th century), pointing-and-calling is known to reduce workplace errors by up to 85 percent, according to one 1996 study."
One thing I do as a pilot, btw, is that for each item on the checklist I touch the actual control (and sometimes even activate on and off again, for example the alternate static air intake).
It serves several purposes:
* it ensures that you actually look and check, not just say the magic incantation ("fuel selector valve: BOTH") out of habit, and
* for rarely used controls (such as the alternate static air source), it familiarises you with it once per flight, so you don't fumble around in case you need it.
Not all pilots do that. I wonder whether there are studies on whether this helps. Certainly, there are many cases of planes crashing because pilots forgot to do certain items, even though they were on the checklist and the pilots have gone through the checklist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522 ("the flight crew overlooked the pressurisation system state on three separate occasions: during the pre-flight procedure, the after-start check, and the after take-off check. During these checks, no one in the flight crew noticed the incorrect setting."
The classic example of this are train drivers: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pointing-and-calling-j...
Quote from the article:
"Originally developed by the now-defunct Kobe Railroad Administration Bureau in the late Meiji Period (the early 20th century), pointing-and-calling is known to reduce workplace errors by up to 85 percent, according to one 1996 study."