Collaborative Research: The Role of Gesture in Word Learning

当人们交谈时，他们会打手势。手势有助于说话者组织他们的思想和话语，也有助于听话者更充分地理解所传达的信息。教学技术已经开始结合使用伴随语音的手势来促进学习。然而，目前尚不清楚手势如何以及为什么有助于学习。这项研究的目的是调查观察手势与观察物体上的动作在促进幼儿单词学习方面是否存在差异，如果是的话，又有何不同。这项研究使用了学习的行为测量和大脑成像技术来解决这个问题。这项研究最终将有助于优化学习环境。该项目提出了一种假设，即手势对学习的促进作用不同于观察动作的效果，因为手势是更抽象的表征形式，因为它们突出了动作的重要组成部分，而不是与特定的学习环境相联系。该项目探索了手势与动作如何促进4至5岁儿童的单词学习。研究目标包括(1)比较通过手势和动作学习单词对单词学习轨迹的影响；(2)评估通过手势或动作学习单词后，随着时间的推移，单词被概括和保留的程度；(3)探索每种类型学习经验背后的神经机制。结果将澄清手势是否以及如何促进超越特定的学习，并随着时间的推移而延长。

When people talk, they gesture. Gesturing helps speakers to organize their thoughts and words, and also helps listeners to more fully understand the information being conveyed. Instructional techniques have begun to incorporate use of speech-accompanying gestures to facilitate learning. However, it is unclear how and why gestures aid learning. The goal of this research is to investigate whether, and if so how, observing gestures differs from observing actions performed on objects in facilitating young children's word learning. The research employs both behavioral measures of learning and brain imaging techniques to address this issue. The research will ultimately help to optimize learning environments.This project addresses the hypothesis that gesture's facilitative effect on learning is distinct from effects of observing actions because gestures are more abstract forms of representation, in that they highlight the important components of an action without being tied to a specific learning context. The project explores the ways in which gestures versus actions facilitate word learning in 4 to 5 year old children. The research goals include (1) comparing the impact that learning a word through gesture, compared to action, has on the word's learning trajectory; (2) evaluating how well words are generalized and retained over time after they are learned through gesture or action; (3) exploring the neural mechanisms underlying each of these types of learning experiences. The results will clarify whether and how gesture promotes learning that goes beyond the particular, and extends over time.