The content of the message influences the hand choice in co-speech gestures and in gesturing without speaking
Lausberg, H., & Kita, S.
(2003). The content of the message influences the hand choice in co-speech gestures and in gesturing without speaking.
Brain and Language, 86(1), 57-69. doi:10.1016/S0093-934X(02)00534-5.
The present study investigates the hand choice in iconic gestures that accompany speech. In 10 right-handed subjects gestures were elicited by verbal narration and by silent gestural demonstrations of animations with two moving objects. In both conditions, the left-hand was used as often as the right-hand to display iconic gestures. The choice of the right- or left-hands was determined by semantic aspects of the message. The influence of hemispheric language lateralization on the hand choice in co-speech gestures appeared to be minor. Instead, speaking seemed to induce a sequential organization of the iconic gestures.
Publication type
Journal article
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