Gesturers Tell a Story Creatively; Non-Gesturers Tell it like it Happened

ABSTRACT

Previous research has shown that using gestures helps children remember more information. Here, we designed two studies to test whether children who gesture tend to rely on visuospatial cognitive resources more than children who do not gesture. We also test whether children who gesture demonstrate more creativity in their narrative productions. Preschool children watched a cartoon and then were asked to tell back the story of the cartoon. In the first study, some children were asked to tell the story with gestures constrained while others could move their hands if they chose. Children who did not spontaneously gesture told shorter stories than children who gestured. The sequencing of story events was significantly closer to the original among the Non-Gesturers than among children whose gestures were constrained. In the follow-up study, Non-Gesturers again told shorter stories than Gesturers. Moreover, Non-Gesturers’ story length was positively correlated with both verbal and visuospatial short-term memory. Overall, these results suggest that, when retelling narratives, preschoolers who gesture may be relying upon visuospatial cognitive resources to a greater extent and show a tendency to incorporate more creativity into their narratives compared to preschoolers who did not spontaneously gesture.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the children who participated in this study and the research assistants for helping collecting and coding data. This study received funding from a postdoctoral fellowship to the first author from the Government of Canada - Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and a grant to the third author from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.