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In:Why Gesture?: How the hands function in speaking, thinking and communicating
Edited by Ruth Breckinridge Church, Martha W. Alibali and Spencer D. Kelly
[Gesture Studies 7] 2017
► pp. 129–153

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Chapter 6
The function of gesture in learning and memory

 | Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa | DeLTA Center, University of Iowa
 | Department of Psychology, Michigan State University
Published online: 26 April 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.7.07coo
Abstract
Hand gestures facilitate memory processes, both for newly learned material and for material that is already understood. Gestures facilitate working memory in the moment in which they are produced, and they facilitate recall over time. Information encoded with gesture appears particularly likely to be consolidated in memory, and is particularly likely to transfer to novel contexts. Thus, gesture not only improves initial encoding of material, but also improves the quality of the memory representation that is retained. This chapter focuses on the function of gesture with respect to memory, and discusses potential mechanisms by which gesture may promote memory and consolidation, including managing cognitive load, externalizing information, providing multiple, diverse and embodied representations; and engaging reactivation during sleep.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Working memory
    • Capacity of working memory
    • Spatial information
  • Long-term memory
    • Lexical access
    • Semantic memory
    • Episodic memory
  • Learning
    • Generalization and transfer
    • Consolidation
  • Mechanisms underlying memory and learning
    • Facilitate understanding of spoken information
    • Externalize information
    • Create or activate visual and/or motor representations
    • Procedural coding
    • Neural processes supporting gesture and memory
    • Sleep dependent consolidation
  • Conclusion
  • References
References (148)
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2025. Islands of iconicity: a usage-based approach to capturing meaning-making processes in gesture. Cognitive Semiotics DOI logo
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2025. Dynamic Mathematical Processing Through Symbolic, Situational, and Verbal Representations. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 59:1 DOI logo
Macedonia, Manuela
2025. Your Body as a Tool to Learn Second Language Vocabulary. Behavioral Sciences 15:8 ► pp. 997 ff. DOI logo
Alibali, Martha W. & Autumn B. Hostetter
2024. Gestures in Cognition: Actions that Bridge the Mind and the World. In The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies, ► pp. 501 ff. DOI logo
Aslan, Zeynep, Demet Özer & Tilbe Göksun
2024. Exploring Emotions Through Co-speech Gestures: The Caveats and New Directions. Emotion Review 16:4 ► pp. 265 ff. DOI logo
Gullberg, Marianne
2024. Gesture and Second/Foreign Language Acquisition. In The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies, ► pp. 398 ff. DOI logo
Khatin-Zadeh, Omid, Zahra Eskandari & Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos
2024. Gestures Enhance Executive Functions for the Understating of Mathematical Concepts. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 58:4 ► pp. 1490 ff. DOI logo
Lin, Yen-Liang
2024. Gestures as scaffolding for L2 narrative recall: The role of gesture type, task complexity, and working memory. Language Teaching Research 28:6 ► pp. 2059 ff. DOI logo
Nirme, Jens, Agneta Gulz, Magnus Haake & Marianne Gullberg
2024. Early or synchronized gestures facilitate speech recall—a study based on motion capture data. Frontiers in Psychology 15 DOI logo
Aydin, Cagla, Tilbe Göksun, Ege Otenen, Selma Berfin Tanis, Yağmur Damla Şentürk & Barbara Dritschel
2023. The role of gestures in autobiographical memory. PLOS ONE 18:2 ► pp. e0281748 ff. DOI logo
Nicoladis, Elena & Emma Hill
2023. Do gestures reflect children’s lexical retrieval difficulties?. Gesture 22:1 ► pp. 94 ff. DOI logo
Khatin-Zadeh, Omid, Zahra Eskandari, Babak Yazdani-Fazlabadi & Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos
2022. Four Functions of Gesture in Promoting Thought Processes. Psychological Studies 67:4 ► pp. 411 ff. DOI logo
Prové, Valentijn & Kurt Feyaerts
2022. Pitch metaphors and the body in singing classes. CogniTextes :Volume 22 DOI logo
Denault, Vincent & Miles L. Patterson
2021. Justice and Nonverbal Communication in a Post-pandemic World: An Evidence-Based Commentary and Cautionary Statement for Lawyers and Judges. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 45:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Mathayas, Nitasha, David E. Brown & Robb Lindgren
2021. “I got to see, and I got to be a part of it”: How cued gesturing facilitates middle‐school students' explanatory modeling of thermal conduction. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 58:10 ► pp. 1557 ff. DOI logo
Sgard, Clara, Jean‐Christophe Bier & Philippe Peigneux
2021. Gesturing helps memory encoding in aMCI. Journal of Neuropsychology 15:3 ► pp. 396 ff. DOI logo
Özer, Demet & Tilbe Göksun
2020. Gesture Use and Processing: A Review on Individual Differences in Cognitive Resources. Frontiers in Psychology 11 DOI logo
Davis, Robert O.
2018. The impact of pedagogical agent gesturing in multimedia learning environments: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review 24 ► pp. 193 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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