The Powerful Role of Gestures in Shaping Thought and Cognition

Abstract

Gesture Changes Thought by Grounding it in Action Sometimes it's almost not possible to talk without using gestures. The gesture seems to be significant in how we think. It provides a visual clue to our thinking process and some theories have suggested, though our change of thoughts by grounding them in action. However, gestures run deeper than merely learning a new word. In every normal conversation, gesture gives people any conscious thought. People talking with energy and animation, with natural gestures to go along with what they are saying. Therefore, gestures convey important messages and meaning using a different representation format from speech. It relies on mimetic and visual imagery to convey meaning discretely. It remains a powerful tool of communication among humans and is of particular interest to the dumb and deaf community. The journal investigates the cognitive impact of the action gestures for the gestures themselves. It argues that when people are performing a task such as balancing blocks, trying shoes, or rotating gears they are using gestures. And usually reflects their action executed on the object. Scholars have suggested that most gestures are influences by their actions on how they think by grounding effect, language, and even perceptions in the sensorimotor system. The paper hypothesized that because action influences our thinks, also action through "gestures influences the subsequent thoughts" (Beilock, Sian and Susan, 10). The author claims that the hypothesis is motivated by the "embodied-cognitions framework". The journal conducts two experiments to support its hypotheses, which is carried out at the Tower of Hanoi task. Both need the participants to arrange the stacked disk in descending order (largest to the smallest). For the first experiment, participants were asked to solve the stack disks and asked to use both gesture and speech to explain how they were able to solve. The...