Mechanisms underlying the beneficial effect of a speaker’s gestures on the listener

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Titel: Mechanisms underlying the beneficial effect of a speaker’s gestures on the listener
Autoren: IANI', FRANCESCO, BUCCIARELLI, Monica
Quelle: Journal of Memory and Language. 96:110-121
Verlagsinformationen: Elsevier BV, 2017.
Publikationsjahr: 2017
Schlagwörter: Gestures,Memory for action,Mental models,Motor system,Experimenter-performed task, 05 social sciences, 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences, 3. Good health
Beschreibung: A well-established literature reveals that a speaker’s gestures have beneficial effects on the listener’s memory for speech. A main assumption of our investigation is that gestures improve memory through the exploitation of the listener’s motor system. We tested this prediction in four experiments in which the participants listened to action sentences uttered by a speaker who either stayed still or accompanied the speech with congruent gestures. The results revealed that when the listeners observed gestures their memory for speech improved (Experiment 1), but loading up the listeners’ motor system during gestures observation cancelled the beneficial effect when the motor task involved the same effectors used by the speaker (arms and hands, Experiments 2–3). The beneficial effect of gestures persisted when the motor task involved different effectors (legs and feet, Experiment 4). These results support the assumption of a main involvement of the motor system in the beneficial effect of observed gestures.
Publikationsart: Article
Dateibeschreibung: application/pdf
Sprache: English
ISSN: 0749-596X
DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2017.05.004
Zugangs-URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749596X17300372
https://iris.unito.it/handle/2318/1641206
https://aperto.unito.it/handle/2318/1641206
Rights: Elsevier TDM
Dokumentencode: edsair.doi.dedup.....a4f20f04c1939bbd51a0ce6d8e4c7261
Datenbank: OpenAIRE
Beschreibung
Abstract:A well-established literature reveals that a speaker’s gestures have beneficial effects on the listener’s memory for speech. A main assumption of our investigation is that gestures improve memory through the exploitation of the listener’s motor system. We tested this prediction in four experiments in which the participants listened to action sentences uttered by a speaker who either stayed still or accompanied the speech with congruent gestures. The results revealed that when the listeners observed gestures their memory for speech improved (Experiment 1), but loading up the listeners’ motor system during gestures observation cancelled the beneficial effect when the motor task involved the same effectors used by the speaker (arms and hands, Experiments 2–3). The beneficial effect of gestures persisted when the motor task involved different effectors (legs and feet, Experiment 4). These results support the assumption of a main involvement of the motor system in the beneficial effect of observed gestures.
ISSN:0749596X
DOI:10.1016/j.jml.2017.05.004