title: Producing gestures facilitates route learning.
abstract: The present study investigates whether producing gestures would facilitate route learning in a navigation task and whether its facilitation effect is comparable to that of hand movements that leave physical visible traces. In two experiments, we focused on gestures produced without accompanying speech, i.e., co-thought gestures (e.g., an index finger traces the spatial sequence of a route in the air). Adult participants were asked to study routes shown in four diagrams, one at a time. Participants reproduced the routes (verbally in Experiment 1 and non-verbally in Experiment 2) without rehearsal or after rehearsal by mentally simulating the route, by drawing it, or by gesturing (either in the air or on paper). Participants who moved their hands (either in the form of gestures or drawing) recalled better than those who mentally simulated the routes and those who did not rehearse, suggesting that hand movements produced during rehearsal facilitate route learning. Interestingly, participants who gestured the routes in the air or on paper recalled better than those who drew them on paper in both experiments, suggesting that the facilitation effect of co-thought gesture holds for both verbal and nonverbal recall modalities. It is possibly because, co-thought gesture, as a kind of representational action, consolidates spatial sequence better than drawing and thus exerting more powerful influence on spatial representation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, S.A.R.
authors.forename: Wing Chee
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: So
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Terence Han-Wei
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Ching
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Phoebe Elizabeth
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Xiaoqin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, S.A.R.
authors.forename: Kit Yee
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Ip
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D065852:Spatial Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult