Explaining Math: Gesturing Lightens the Load

Psychological Science - Tập 12 Số 6 - Trang 516-522 - 2001
Susan Goldin‐Meadow1, Howard C. Nusbaum1, Spencer D. Kelly1, Susan Wagner1
1The University of Chicago,

Tóm tắt

Why is it that people cannot keep their hands still when they talk? One reason may be that gesturing actually lightens cognitive load while a person is thinking of what to say. We asked adults and children to remember a list of letters or words while explaining how they solved a math problem. Both groups remembered significantly more items when they gestured during their math explanations than when they did not gesture. Gesturing appeared to save the speakers' cognitive resources on the explanation task, permitting the speakers to allocate more resources to the memory task. It is widely accepted that gesturing reflects a speaker's cognitive state, but our observations suggest that, by reducing cognitive load, gesturing may also play a role in shaping that state.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

10.1111/1467-9280.00163

10.1037/0022-0663.89.1.183

10.1080/016909600750040571

Andersen R.A., 1995, The cognitive neurosciences, 519

Baddeley A.D., 1986, Working memory

10.1016/0010-0277(86)90053-3

10.1017/CBO9780511620539

10.1037/h0035792

10.1093/brain/120.10.1763

Feyereisen P., 1991, Gestures and speech: Psychological investigations

10.1080/01638539909545067

10.1037/0033-295X.100.2.279

10.1037/0022-0663.91.4.720

10.1037/0033-295X.103.1.34

10.1111/1467-7687.00056

10.1207/s1532690xci0903_2

10.1038/24300

10.1207/s1532690xci1501_4

10.1515/9783110813098.207

10.1037/0096-1523.5.2.189

McNeill D., 1992, Hand and mind

10.1207/s15327973rlsi2703_4

10.1016/0010-0285(75)90004-3

10.1017/CBO9781139174909.014

10.1016/0885-2014(88)90021-4

10.1038/331585a0

10.1016/S0885-2014(97)90017-4

10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00364.x

10.1002/ejsp.2420120201

10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.127

Smith E.E., 1995, The cognitive neurosciences, 1009

10.1006/jecp.1994.1016

Wepman J.M., 1969, A spoken word count (children—ages 5,6, and 7)

Wickens C.D., 1984, Varieties of attention, 63

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Psychological Science

Tập 12 Số 6

516-522

Thông tin tác giả