The content of the message influences the hand choice in co-speech gestures and in gesturing without speaking.
The present study investigates the hand choice in iconic gestures that accompany speech. In 10 right-handed subjects gestures were elicited by verbal narration and by silent gestural demonstrations of animations with two moving objects. In both conditions, the left-hand was used as often as the right-hand to display iconic gestures. The choice of the right- or left-hands was determined by semantic aspects of the message. The influence of hemispheric language lateralization on the hand choice in co-speech gestures appeared to be minor. Instead, speaking seemed to induce a sequential organization of the iconic gestures.
Lausberg
Hedda
H
Department of Neurology, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany. hedda@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Kita
Sotaro
S
D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior