Embodied communication: speakers' gestures affect listeners' actions.
We explored how speakers and listeners use hand gestures as a source of perceptual-motor information during naturalistic communication. After solving the Tower of Hanoi task either with real objects or on a computer, speakers explained the task to listeners. Speakers' hand gestures, but not their speech, reflected properties of the particular objects and the actions that they had previously used to solve the task. Speakers who solved the problem with real objects used more grasping handshapes and produced more curved trajectories during the explanation. Listeners who observed explanations from speakers who had previously solved the problem with real objects subsequently treated computer objects more like real objects; their mouse trajectories revealed that they lifted the objects in conjunction with moving them sideways, and this behavior was related to the particular gestures that were observed. These findings demonstrate that hand gestures are a reliable source of perceptual-motor information during human communication.
Cook
Susan Wagner
SW
Department of Psychology, The University of Iowa, E11 Seashore Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. susan-cook@uiowa.edu
Tanenhaus
Michael K
MK
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*
Psychol Sci. 2002 Mar;13(2):168-71
11934002
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1995 Apr;21(2):334-43
7714475
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1981 Aug;7(4):733-40
6457088
Brain Lang. 2004 Apr;89(1):253-60
15010257
J Cogn Neurosci. 2007 Apr;19(4):605-16
17381252
Cognition. 2010 Jun;115(3):380-93
20356575
Psychon Bull Rev. 2002 Sep;9(3):558-65
12412897
Dev Psychol. 2003 May;39(3):509-20
12760519
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 1989 Nov;15(6):1047-60
2530305
Exp Brain Res. 2004 Jan;154(1):103-8
14578997
Psychon Bull Rev. 2008 Jun;15(3):495-514
18567247
Psychophysiology. 2005 Nov;42(6):654-67
16364061
Cognition. 2005 Jan;94(3):B79-89
15617669
Q J Exp Psychol A. 2002 Apr;55(2):593-607
12047061
Brain Lang. 2004 Apr;89(1):27-37
15010234
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Jul 19;102(29):10393-8
15985550
J Cogn Neurosci. 2007 Jul;19(7):1175-92
17583993