Newswise — Those teachers who wave their hands around as they talk during class? They might be onto something: Hand gestures play a significant role in the learning process, according to Spencer Kelly, assistant professor psychology at Colgate University.
"Scientific studies have already shown that hand gestures affect cognition," said Kelly. "But there is also evidence that they may impact long-term learning and retention too."
One of Kelly's recent studies compared the reactions of a group of students who viewed a video of a professor talking and gesturing during a lecture, and another who watched an edited version of the recording without the gestures.
Afterwards, the first group of students had a higher opinion of the professor than the group that did not see the gestures. They also reported that they thought the material was clearer, that they understood it better, and that they were more confident in their knowledge of the lecture.
"If a student likes and is captivated by the gestures of his professor, it's quite possible that he'll pay better attention and remember more as a result," Kelly explained. (A paper on the study, which appeared in the journal Gesture, is available at http://www.benjamins.nl/jbp/series/GEST/4-1/art/0002a.pdf.)
Kelly's work aims to identify a more concrete neurological link between words and body language that may one day shed light on how children and adults learn as well as predict individual differences in learning.
"Gesture and other forms of visual communication are tightly integrated with our understanding of language," Kelly said. "Research on the brain suggests that long before speech evolved in humans, people most likely communicated with nonverbal behaviors such as gesture."
Founded in 1819, Colgate University is a highly selective, residential, liberal arts college enrolling nearly 2,750 undergraduates. Situated on a rolling 515-acre campus in central New York State, Colgate University attracts motivated students with diverse backgrounds, interests and talents.
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