TY - JOUR
T1 - In which direction to move? Facilitative and interference effects of gestures on problem solver's thinking
AU - Wassenburg, Stephanie I.
AU - de Koning, Björn B.
AU - van der Schoot, Menno
PY - 2018/4
Y1 - 2018/4
N2 - Recent research shows that co-speech gestures can influence gesturers’ thought. This line of research suggests that the influence of gestures is so strong, that it can wash out and reverse an effect of learning. We argue that these findings need a more robust and ecologically valid test, which we provide in this article. Our results support the claim that gestures not only reflect information in our mental representations, but can also influence gesturer's thought by adding action information to one's mental representation during problem solving (Tower of Hanoi). We show, however, that the effect of gestures on subsequent performance is not as strong as previously suggested. As opposed to what previous research indicates, gestures' facilitative effect through learning was not nullified by the potentially interfering effect on subsequent problem-solving performance of incompatible gestures. To conclude, using gestures during problem solving seems to provide more benefits than costs for task performance.
AB - Recent research shows that co-speech gestures can influence gesturers’ thought. This line of research suggests that the influence of gestures is so strong, that it can wash out and reverse an effect of learning. We argue that these findings need a more robust and ecologically valid test, which we provide in this article. Our results support the claim that gestures not only reflect information in our mental representations, but can also influence gesturer's thought by adding action information to one's mental representation during problem solving (Tower of Hanoi). We show, however, that the effect of gestures on subsequent performance is not as strong as previously suggested. As opposed to what previous research indicates, gestures' facilitative effect through learning was not nullified by the potentially interfering effect on subsequent problem-solving performance of incompatible gestures. To conclude, using gestures during problem solving seems to provide more benefits than costs for task performance.
KW - embodied cognition
KW - Gestures
KW - mental representation
KW - problem solving
KW - Tower of Hanoi
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U2 - 10.1080/20445911.2018.1432628
DO - 10.1080/20445911.2018.1432628
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85041239971
SN - 2044-5911
VL - 30
SP - 307
EP - 313
JO - Journal of Cognitive Psychology
JF - Journal of Cognitive Psychology
IS - 3
ER -