TY - JOUR
T1 - Four Functions of Gesture in Promoting Thought Processes
AU - Khatin-Zadeh, Omid
AU - Eskandari, Zahra
AU - Yazdani-Fazlabadi, Babak
AU - Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - This article discusses four functions of gesture that could promote thought processes: gesture as a tool to ground knowledge through the visual system; gesture as a tool to enhance short-term and long-term memories; gesture as a tool to ground knowledge through the motor system; and gesture as a tool to suppress irrelevant information. Gestures contribute to the grounding of concepts through metaphors that describe abstract concepts in terms of visually perceivable concepts. In this way, at least some aspects of a concept could be grounded through the visual system. Gestures promote short-term and long-term memories in two ways: by filtering out irrelevant elements of a representation and thus reducing the load on memory; by storing and representing information in the form of organized, appropriate, and easily recallable units. Gestures can contribute to the process of grounding through motor system by activating motor areas and by offering a visually perceivable representation of actions simulated in the mind of the individual. Gestures can promote a suppressive mechanism through which extraneous stimuli and contextually unnecessary elements of a representation are omitted. Through this mechanism, both spatio-motoric and non-spatio-motoric elements are suppressed. Thus, more cognitive resources can be assigned to the relevant parts of the task at hand.
AB - This article discusses four functions of gesture that could promote thought processes: gesture as a tool to ground knowledge through the visual system; gesture as a tool to enhance short-term and long-term memories; gesture as a tool to ground knowledge through the motor system; and gesture as a tool to suppress irrelevant information. Gestures contribute to the grounding of concepts through metaphors that describe abstract concepts in terms of visually perceivable concepts. In this way, at least some aspects of a concept could be grounded through the visual system. Gestures promote short-term and long-term memories in two ways: by filtering out irrelevant elements of a representation and thus reducing the load on memory; by storing and representing information in the form of organized, appropriate, and easily recallable units. Gestures can contribute to the process of grounding through motor system by activating motor areas and by offering a visually perceivable representation of actions simulated in the mind of the individual. Gestures can promote a suppressive mechanism through which extraneous stimuli and contextually unnecessary elements of a representation are omitted. Through this mechanism, both spatio-motoric and non-spatio-motoric elements are suppressed. Thus, more cognitive resources can be assigned to the relevant parts of the task at hand.
KW - Embodiment
KW - Gesture
KW - Motor system
KW - Visual system
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139783760&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12646-022-00680-9
DO - 10.1007/s12646-022-00680-9
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85139783760
SN - 0033-2968
VL - 67
SP - 411
EP - 418
JO - Psychological Studies
JF - Psychological Studies
IS - 4
ER -