The language that goes unnoticed. Gestures: the way we learn

Just like before, in our Neuro Seminar at Loyola University, we welcome guest speakers to talk about their research/ findings that can inform us on the current area of study in the neuroscience field and that may inspire us to investigate in our future work/career. One of the guest speakers’ works I found intriguing was Sarah Delmar’s research on the ability to learn from just the gestures of hands. The title of the experiment is, “How our hands help us learn” by two researchers who evaluated this study at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Il.

Many questions begin to drive the purpose of this experiment, and it begins with, whether gestures, the way we move our hands reflect our thinking process?  And this experiment explains that instead of reflecting what we think, it is how we think. Gestures are the hidden language that our body shows, when we are ready to learn, it is also the most reciprocated language. It is a form of gesture mismatch and gesture match, that explains the capability of one’s ability to learn. In this experiment it reveals that the way we move our hands when we speak is to help our brain in the memory and learning process. This body language helps us form a recall or interleaving way that makes room in our brain that helps us take in more information all at once. It is an easier tool to teach with than words can. This experiment shows this example through teachers, teaching math problems, and through this experiment they found that when teachers focused on how the students picked up the topic with the gesture of their hand, the way the teacher went about in relaying the topic again so the student understood was based on those gestures. This experiment can improve the ways of teaching in future schools and through books. It is a possibility that students with learning disabilities aren’t struggling because they don’t understand, it is probably the wrong language.

Furthermore, to relate this to similar research that focus on learning abilities that are shown through gestures, it is called “Do Toddlers Learning to Spoon-Feed Seek Different Information From Caregivers’ Hands & Faces?” by 2 researchers at Kobe University. This experiment doesn’t explicitly speak on the importance of gestures but instead explains it through an experiment between a toddler and its provider during feeding time. During this session the experimenters took the time to evaluate how does a toddler learns to feed themselves, is it through speech or how the provider feeds herself through movement. And what they realized is that the toddler's focus was on the hands of the provider instead of instructions that she was stating. The provider wasn’t aware of it herself, but since she may have possibly learned to feed herself in a sort of step it is now being passed down into the toddler and so on. This experiment embarks on the difference of communication, and that every language is heard, explicitly or implicitly. Gestures aren’t the focus when teaching, but are the main focus, and famously reciprocated. 

To relate both experiments is the importance of gestures and that with each movement shows an action of learning and translation. The first experiment takes the time to evaluate the importance of it, and how gestures are usually ignored when teaching or talking, but aren’t ignored by visual learning. The 2 experiments are an example of how gestures go unnoticed by the teacher but are the prime source of learning for the student. These two experiments further helps us realize that the brain picks up on every detail of the environment, and that it explains the process of learning and the status of knowledge the student has. The brain continues to teach itself in many ways to guide the host in life, through perception and sensation, which continues to question the conscious being.

 

 

References

 

Nonaka, T. and Stoffregen, T.A. (2021) Do toddlers learning to spoon-feed seek different information from caregivers’ hands & faces?, Neuroscience News. Available at: https://neurosciencenews.com/toddler-feeding-hand-face-17519/.

Susan, G.-M. and Susan, W.M. (2005) How our hands help us learn | ScienceDirect , Trends in cognitive sciences. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15866150/.