A gesture
is any movement or action that represents another action or concept. Gestures
are an important part of everyday human communication, and they act as an aid
for explanation. Politicians use their hands to emphasize a point. An art
teacher might imitate brushstroke movements when teaching a painting technique.
Even babies might make a pointing gesture when they want a toy. Essentially, to gesture is to speak
with your hands.
Dr. Elizabeth Wakefield of Loyola University
Chicago spends lots of time thinking about gesture in her research. In one of her
studies, she focused on determining what exactly makes someone perceive a
movement as a gesture. She and her colleagues hypothesized that context clues
would increase the likelihood of an observer perceiving a movement as a
gesture. The results of the study showed that speech isn’t always necessary for
an action to be interpreted as a gesture, but context clues can play a big
role. Some context clues come from the movement itself; things such as hand
shape, the direction of a movement, and speed can all have an influence
(Wakefield). Other context clues come from the environment in which the
movement is produced. In general, the key to understanding a movement as a
gesture is context. Once a movement is recognized as a gesture it can then be
interpreted and understood.
Recent
research has found that understanding gesture can also go beyond people into
the animal world and may be another way of communicating with those who cannot
speak. Anna Smet, a graduate student at the University of St. Andrews conducted
a study with 11 captive African Elephants. In her experiment, she put up a
screen and pretended to pour food into two buckets, while only filling one. She
then removed the screen and made a pointing gesture at the bucket with food. The elephants were significantly more likely to choose the correct bucket
(TIME). The elephants also displayed little evidence of learning; they were just as
likely to pick the correct bucket even if they had a chance to practice. The
elephants were also trained with vocal cues, not gesture. This indicated that
the elephants probably understood the gestures on their own (TIME). If the
elephants did understand what the gesture meant and didn’t just learn the cue
from their time with humans, then context clues like those in Dr. Wakefield’s
study probably play a role. The movement and direction of the gesture were probably good indicators to the elephants that the motion was a gesture meant
to indicate the location of the food. Because of this study, we now have a few more clues about elephant cognition.
Elephants
aren’t the only animals known to understand gesture. Dogs are very good at
understanding gesture, and dog owners are sure to notice. Other animals, such as cats can
pick up the skill through learning. Gesture can be used as a way to communicate with our four-legged friends. As
we learn more and more about animal cognition and bridge the gap between human and animal language, we just might learn
more about ourselves.
Greenwood, Veronique. "Brainy Elephants: One More Way They’re as Smart as Humans." TIME 10 Oct. 2013: n. pag. Web.
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