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Article published In: Gesture
Vol. 16:3 (2017) ► pp.416–431

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Effects of gesture restriction on quality of narrative production

 | University of Connecticut
 | University of Connecticut
 | University of Connecticut
Published online: 1 February 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.00003.jen
Abstract
Hand gestures have been found to provide both semantic information and cognitive facilitative effects in language tasks. These benefits, however, have typically been linked to micro-levels of word and sentence production, and little attention has been paid to the macro-levels of narrative production and organization. In this study, we examined the length, content, syntactic complexity, and organization of narratives of ten typically developing adults under two conditions: (i) Free Gesture, in which participants were allowed to gesture freely while retelling a story, and (ii) Restricted Gesture, where the participants were prevented from moving their hands freely. Results indicated that although narrative length and content did not vary significantly between conditions, narratives produced in the Free Gesture condition were significantly more grammatically complex and better organized than those produced in the Restricted Gesture condition. The findings are discussed with respect to the potential facilitative cognitive effects of gesture for discourse planning.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Stimuli
    • Procedure
  • Coding and analysis
    • Gesture segmentation
    • Discourse analysis
      • Grammatical complexity
      • Story organization
      • Number of novel propositions
    • Analysis
    • Reliability
  • Results
    • Gesture frequency
    • Discourse measures
      • Narrative length
      • Number of novel propositions
      • Narrative complexity
      • Narrative organization
      • Percentage of T-units contributing to episode structure
  • Discussion
  • References
References (21)
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