Hand Gestures: Implications on Learning and Predicting Speech

 Hand Gestures: Implications on Learning and Predicting Speech

    Many individuals use hand gestures, either consciously or subconsciously, when speaking. Hand gestures are one method of non-verbal communication people can use in order to emphasis what they are saying or get their point across better. We already have many codified hand gestures in different cultures, like a thumbs up meaning "good job" in the United States or pointing your index and middle fingers up meaning "peace" in the United States and Europe. These are both symbolic gestures. Other types of hand gestures include iconic gestures, for example, someone is talking about typing and makes a typing motion with their hands. 

    Dr. Sarah Delmar came to our Neuroscience Seminar class and discussed the importance of hand gestures, more specifically gesture-speech match, on gauging openness to learning in children. A gesture-speech match is when an individual's hand gestures match what they are communicating verbal. Using conservation for example, first, there are two identical, tall, thin glasses with the same amount of water in each. Then, the water in one of those glasses is poured into a shorter, wider glass. A non-conserving child will say that the amount of water has changed. A gesture-speech match would occur if the non-conserver was asked to explain and said that the amount of water has changed because the water in one glass is low and the other is high, while pointing to the height of the glasses. They are verbally communicating about the height and pointing to the height; it matches. On the other hand, let's say another non-conserving child gives the same verbal explanation as the last one, but gestures to the width and narrowness of the glasses. This would be a gesture-speech mismatch, because the child is verbally communicating about the height of the water but gesturing to the width. Research has shown that children who make gesture-speech mismatches are more likely to make progress on the task at hand than those who make gesture-speech matches. The mismatch is able to predict openness to instruction and learning, due to the fact these individuals are assessing multiple ideas at once (Goldinmeadow & Wagner, 2005). Gesture-speech mismatch is an indicator of flexibility and change.

    Research has not only shown us that gesture-speech mismatch can indicate where a child is at in their development of learning, but also that gestures can help listeners predict speech. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Radboud University ran an experiment using virtual avatars and found that participants used the avatar's gestures to predict their speech. EEG data showed that gestures triggered brain activity associated with anticipation and language processing (Corporaal). 

    Thinking about both of these studies, we see the importance of gestures in predicting future speech and openness to learning. Hand gestures can be used as outward communication, but also provide insight into a child's state of development. These findings highlight the broader role that gestures should be playing in educational settings. Not only can students predict what their teacher might say next due to the gestures they are using, which would be helpful when taking notes, but this also helps indicate to teachers where their students are at in their learning process. The implementation of more intentional gestures during teaching could be very beneficial to both teachers and students.

References

    Corporaal, A. (2025, April 22). Gestures help listeners predict speech. Neuroscience News. https://neurosciencenews.com/gesture-speech-prediction-28684/

    Goldinmeadow, S., & Wagner, S. (2005a). How our hands help us learn. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(5), 234–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.03.006