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Action Attenuates the Effect of Visibility on Gesture Rates
Author(s) -
Hostetter Autumn B.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1111/cogs.12113
Subject(s) - gesture , visibility , action (physics) , psychology , noun , cognitive psychology , communication , computer science , speech recognition , artificial intelligence , geography , physics , quantum mechanics , meteorology
Much evidence suggests that semantic characteristics of a message (e.g., the extent to which the message evokes thoughts of spatial or motor properties) and social characteristics of a speaking situation (e.g., whether there is a listener who can see the speaker) both influence how much speakers gesture. However, the Gesture as Simulated Action ( GSA ) framework (Hostetter & Alibali, [Hostetter, A. B., 2008]) predicts that these effects should not be independent but should interact such that the effect of visibility is lessened when a message evokes strong thoughts of action. This study tested this claim by comparing the gesture rates produced by speakers as they described 24 nouns that vary in how strongly they evoke thoughts of action. Further, half of the words were described with visibility between speaker and listener blocked. The results demonstrated a significant interaction as predicted by the GSA framework.