Cover not available

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. 197–212

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 9
Gesture in socio-moral reasoning

 | Erikson Institute
Published online: 26 April 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.7.10bea
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter will be to expand our understanding of the effects that gestures have on learning by exploring their impact on the acquisition of non-spatial concepts. This is crucial to our understanding of how exactly gestures help learners – a premise at the very heart of this book. It could be the case that gesture simply aids in the learning of spatial information. In and of itself, this is a remarkable contribution. Alternatively, it could be that gesture actually conveys a general cognitive benefit by aiding in the learning of both spatial and non-spatial information, making gesture a potent tool for understanding the world around us. Using extant literature in conjunction with experimental findings, I will make a case for the latter.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Background
    • The contribution of iconic gesture to spatial learning
    • The contribution of metaphoric gesture to spatial learning
    • The underlying mechanism of gesture’s contribution to spatial learning
    • Gesture in non-spatial learning contexts
  • Gesture and learning in a non-spatial domain: Moral reasoning
  • Conclusions
  • References
References (49)
References
Alibali, Martha W. and Goldin-Meadow, Susan 1993. “Gesture-speech mismatch and mechanisms of learning: What the hands reveal about a child’s state of mind.” Cognitive Psychology 25: 468–523. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barsalou, Lawrence W. and Wiemer-Hastings, Katja 2005. “Situating abstract concepts.” In Grounding Cognition: The Role of Perception and Action in Memory, Language, and Thinking, Diane Pecher and Rolf Zwaan (eds), 129–163. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beattie, Geoff and Shovelton, Heather 2002. “An experimental investigation of some properties of individual iconic gestures that mediate their communicative power”. British Journal of Psychology 93: 179–192. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beaudoin-Ryan, Leanne and Goldin-Meadow, Susan 2014. “Teaching moral reasoning through gesture.” Developmental science 17 (6): 984–990. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beilock, Sian L. and Goldin-Meadow, Susan 2010. “Gesture changes thought by grounding it in action.” Psychological Science 21: 1605–1610. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Broaders, Sara C., Cook, Susan W., Mitchell, Zachary and Goldin-Meadow, Susan 2007. “Making children gesture brings out implicit knowledge and leads to learning.” Journal of Experimental Psychology, General 136: 539–550. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chui, Kawai 2011. “Conceptual metaphors in gesture.” Cognitive Linguistics 22: 437–458. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Church, Ruth B. 1999. “Using Gesture and Speech to Capture Transitions in Learning”. Cognitive Development 14: 313–342.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Church, Ruth B., Schonert-Reichl, Kimberly, Goodman, Nancy, Kelly, Spencer D. and Ayman-Nolley, Saba 1995. “The role of gesture and speech communication as a reflection of cognitive understanding.” Journal of Contemporary and Legal Issues 6: 237–280.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Church, Ruth B. and Goldin-Meadow, Susan 1986. “The mismatch between gesture and speech as an index of transitional knowledge.” Cognition 23: 43–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cienki, Alan 1998. “Metaphoric gestures and some of their relation to verbal metaphoric expressions.” In Discourse and Cognition: Bridging the Gap, Jean-Pierre Koenig (ed), 189–204. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colby, Anne & Kohlberg, Lawrence 1987. The Measurement of Moral Judgment, Vol. 2: Standard Issue Scoring Manual. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eisenberg-Berg, Nancy & Hand, Michael 1979. “The relationship of preschoolers reasoning about prosocial moral conflicts to prosocial behavior.” Child Development 50: 356–363. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eisenberg, Nancy 1986. Altruistic Emotion, Cognition, & Behavior. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul & Friesen, Wallace V. 1969. “The repertoire of non-verbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, & coding.” Semiotica 1: 40–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond 2006. “Metaphor Interpretation as Embodied Simulation”. Mind & Language. 21: 434–458. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003. “Embodied experience and linguistic meaning.” Brain & Language 84: 1–15. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. “Metaphor Interpretation as Embodied Simulation”. Mind & Language 21: 434–458.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan 2003. “The resilience of language.” In Proceedings of the 27th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Barbara Beachley, Amanda Brown & Frances Conlin (eds), 1–25. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hostetter, Autumn & Alibali, Martha W. 2008. “Visual embodiment: Gestures as simulated action.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 15: 495–515. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jeannerod, Marc 1995. “Mental imagery in the motor context.” Neuropsychologia 33: 1419–1432. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. “The representing brain: Neural correlates of motor intention and imagery.” Behavioral & Brain Sciences 17: 187–245. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Mark 1987. The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kosslyn, Stephen 2005. “Mental images and the brain.” Cognitive Neuropsychology 22: 333–347. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, George 2008. “The neuroscience of metaphoric gestures: Why they exist.” In Metaphor and Gesture. Alan Cienki & Cornelia Müller (eds), 283–289. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago:University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, David. 1985. “So you think gestures are nonverbal?” Psychological Review 92: 350–371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1992. Hand in Mind: What Gestures Reveal About Thought. Chicago:University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Newell, Allen & Simon, Herbert A. 1972. Human Problem-Solving. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nucci, Larry P. & Weber, Elsa K. 1995. “Social interactions in the home and the development of young children’s conception of the personal.” Child Development 66: 1438–1452. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Núñez, Rafael 2008. “A fresh look at the foundations of mathematics: Gesture and the psychological reality of conceptual metaphor.” In Metaphor and Gesture. Alan Cienki & Cornelia Müller (eds), 93–114. Amsterdam/Philadelphia:John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Özçalişkan, Seyda. 2007. “Metaphors We Move By: Children’s Developing Understanding of Metaphorical Motion in Typologically Distinct Languages”. Metaphor and Symbol 22: 147–168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piaget, Jean 1932/1965. The Moral Judgment of the Child. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perry, Michelle, Church, Ruth B., & Goldin-Meadow, Susan 1988. “Transitional knowledge in the acquisition of concepts.” Cognitive Development 3: 359–400. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ping, Raedy M. & Goldin-Meadow, Susan 2008. “Hands in the air: Using ungrounded iconic gestures to teach conservation of quantity.” Developmental Psychology 4: 1277–1287. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richardson, Daniel C., Spivey, Michael J., Edelman, Shimon, & Naples, Adam 2001. “Language is spatial: Experimental evidence for image schemas of concrete and abstract verbs.” In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Johanna D. Moore & Keith Stenning (eds), 873–878. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roth, Wolff-Michael & Lawless, Daniel 2002. “Scientific investigations, metaphorical gestures, and the emergence of abstract scientific concepts.” Learning and Instruction 12: 285–304. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Santana, Eduardo & DeVega, Manuel 2011. “Metaphors are embodied and so are their literal counterparts.” Frontiers in Psychology 2: 1–12. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selman, Robert L. 1971a. “The relation of role-taking to the development of moral judgment in children.” Child Development 42: 79–91. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1971b. “Taking another’s perspective: Role-taking development in early childhood.” Child Development 42: 1721–1734. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siegler, Robert S. 1981. “Developmental sequences within and between concepts.” Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 46: 1–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1976. “Three aspects of cognitive development.” Cognitive Psychology 8: 481–520. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smetana, Judith G. 2006. “Social-cognitive domain theory: Consistencies and variations in children’s moral and social judgments.” In Handbook of Moral Development, Melanie Killen & Judith G. Smetana (eds), 119–153. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Turiel, Elliot 1998. “The development of morality.” In Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol. 3: Social, Emotional, and Personality Development. William Damon (series ed) and Nancy Eisenberg (volume ed), 863–932. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1969. “Developmental processes in the child's moral thinking.” In Trends and Issues in Developmental Psychology. Paul H. Mussen, Jonas Langer, & Martin Covington (eds), 92–133. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walker, Lawrence J. & Taylor, John H. 1991. “Stage transitions in moral reasoning: A longitudinal study of developmental processes.” Developmental Psychology 27: 330–337. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Alex C. 1982. “Partial knowledge and self-correction: Developmental studies of a quantitative concept.” Developmental Psychology 18: 876–893. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilson, Nicole & Gibbs, Raymond 2007. “Real and imagined body movement primes metaphor comprehension.” Cognitive Science 31: 721–731. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Zhang, Zhenzhen, Wendy L. Bowcher & Bingjun Yang
2025. Toward a system of gesture–speech relations in elementary science teaching. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 62:5 ► pp. 1298 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.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue