I see it in my hands’ eye: Representational gestures reflect conceptual demands

Abstract

The Information Packaging Hypothesis (Kita, 2000) holds that gestures play a role in conceptualising information for speaking. According to this view, speakers will gesture more when describing difficult-to-conceptualise information than when describing easy-to-conceptualise information. In the present study, 24 participants described ambiguous dot patterns under two conditions. In the dots-plus-shapes condition, geometric shapes connected the dots, and participants described the patterns in terms of those shapes. In the dots-only condition, no shapes were present, and participants generated their own geometric conceptualisations and described the patterns. Participants gestured at a higher rate in the dots-only condition than in the dots-plus-shapes condition. The results support the Information Packaging Hypothesis and suggest that gestures occur when information is difficult to conceptualise.

This research was supported by a grant from the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to Martha W. Alibali.

We thank Arthur Glenberg, Maryellen MacDonald, and Charles Snowdon for their helpful comments regarding the design of this study. We thank Antje Meyer, Dan Schwartz, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. We also thank Kristi Kalmoe and Karin Ockuly for their help with data coding.

Notes

¹The unequal gender distribution is representative of the distribution in the participant pool.

²It is not clear whether Butterworth and Beattie measured the onset of the preparatory movement or the gestural movement proper (gesture stroke).