In everyday life, we use our hands to
represent or explain information to another individual whether it’s in an
educational environment or casually talking to a friend. We see professors
using hand movements to emphasize important parts of diagrams or little
children using it to explain something they want if they can’t put their desire
into words. This form of movement is known as gesture. The formal definition of
a gesture is a movement of a part of the body to express an idea or meaning.
Since we’re surrounded by gestures everyday, it is important to discover if
these movements provide benefits such as in learning information in an
educational setting. I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Elizabeth Wakefield of
Loyola University Chicago explain her discoveries of the impact of gesture on
learning in her study Neural Correlates
of Gesture Processing Across Human Development along with other supporting
experiments.
In
Dr. Elizabeth Wakefield’s study, video clips were shown to children. For some
children, the video clip contained an individual talking about how to solve a
math equation paired with the equation written on a board. In other children,
the video clip contained the same elements (speech with iconic content) as the
previous type of video but also contained hand gestures to show how the
equation can be solved. The results of the experiment showed that the cues such
as spatial orientation of the hand and movement provide information that helps
learning. This information can be extremely beneficial in educational setting
because it provides anther element of teaching that can help students
understand and learn content.
Since we unknowingly use gestures, it is
beneficial to know what impact it has, if any, on our neural processing and how
useful it is to us. Other studies have been conducted to determine what impact
and changes gesture have on cognition. Claire Vallotton conducted a study to
determine the impact different types of gestures have on different ages of
children. The children were asked to perform a block puzzle task. The children
attempted to solve the puzzle independently and then with the help of their
parents using gestures. In some children, the parents were instructed to
provide help verbally and not to use gestures to help with the task. Other
parents were told to provide gestural support. The results showed that the
children who were in the age group 4.5-6 years were impacted the greatest with
gestures even though the younger children received more gestures. The frequency
of gestures provided was based on the skill level of the age group; therefore,
younger children received more gestures than older children. The results can
provide insight into how gestures can be used in educational settings for
different ages.
Another
researcher (Goldin-Meadow) conducted a study on the role that gestures play in
cognition. She discovered that when a child is learning new behavior, the first
sign that the child has learnt the information is usually in the form of a
gesture. The gesture appears months before the child verbally expresses the
learned information.
There
are many, many more studies that have looked at the relationship between
gestures and impact on cognition. The results show that a gesture isn’t a
useless form of movement that we use or see. Flapping our arms around when
talking isn’t useless or crazy after all. It has positive impacts on cognition
and learning. It is useful in determining whether a child has learned a concept
as Goldin-Meadow’s study shows. Gestures
can open up a new door for parents in teaching their children simple tasks at
home or important concepts in school.
Sources:
Elizabeth
M. Wakefield, Thomas W. James & Karin H. James (2013):
Neural
correlates of gesture processing across human development, Cognitive
Neuropsychology, DOI:10.1080/02643294.2013.794777
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gesture
images:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/20/1408526157933_wps_1_Father_helping_son_with_h.jpg
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