The Cognitive Science of Gestures

Most people talk with their hands. In fact, gestures seem to arise unconsciously when we speak. There a growing body of research showing that mind and body work closely together in early cognitive development. Gestures reduce memory load and externally manipulate information. We need to keep concepts active while solving a problem or talking on the telephone. Rather than relying on memory to keep this information active, it is assigned to the hands, which provide proprioceptive and visuospatial information.

Cognitive psychologists investigated the role that gesture plays in memory, learning, problem solving, and communication. Researchers found that children who use their hands when they talk learn better, and that observation of a teacher using meaningful gestures helps them learn. Studies also show that children who spontaneously gesture are also more likely to retain what they’ve learned, and suggests that gesturing enables better performance.

It is believed that gesturing frees working memory (the ability to remember information over a few seconds), and helps to keep our mind on a task. Limits in working memory impacts our ability to learn. Gestures reduce the cognitive load on working memory, thus children think and learn more efficiently. In other words, using your hands to talk is a strategy that minimizes cognitive load, freeing up memory for other tasks. Working memory is closely linked with intelligence.

Studies suggest that babies develop larger vocabularies when parents supplement speech with gestures. Since gestures reduce cognitive overload, then learning a new word using voice and gesture should be easier. We know that babies who gesture get more timely information from parents. When a baby points at a cat, it prompts the response, “Yes, that’s a cat,” hearing the word when attentive and interested. Gestures also help children recall the details of past events according to researchers who introduced an experience to 6 and 7year olds, and then asked them to recall the event 2 weeks later. The children who used gestures recalled more details.Thus, gestures help children retain what they learn. Mental visualization, is a benefit of gesturing. Children with good mental rotation skills (requiring imagination) spontaneously used their hands during problem solving involving rotating objects in space.Studies have shown that gesturing can help older children learn new math concepts.

Research demonstrates that gestures are a way of expressing and/or working out our thoughts. Hand movements are like a second language, adding information that’s absent from our words. Often, gestures express our newest and most advanced thoughts/ideas about the problem at hand, those that cannot yet be expressed using language, but can be captured in gestures.

So use gestures when teaching your child something new, and encourage your child to incorporate gestures when problem-solving new ideas.