Effects of simultaneously observing and making gestures while studying grammar animations on cognitive load and learning

Abstract

This study examined whether simultaneously observing and making gestures while studying animations would lighten cognitive load and facilitate the acquisition of grammatical rules. In contrast to our hypothesis, results showed that children in the gesturing condition performed worse on the posttest than children in the non-gesturing, control condition. A more detailed analysis of the data revealed an expertise reversal effect, indicating that this negative effect on posttest performance materialized for children with lower levels of general language skills, but not for children with higher levels of general language skills. The finding that for children with lower language ability, cognitive load did not decrease as they saw more animations provided additional support for this expertise reversal effect. These findings suggest that the combination of observing and making gestures may have imposed extraneous cognitive load on the lower ability children, which they could not accommodate together with the relatively high intrinsic load imposed by the learning task. Acknowledgement. This research was funded by the Netherlands Organization for ScientificResearch (NWO; project number 411-10-907). We thank Bonnie van Huik and Jacqueline de Nooijer for their assistance during preparation of stimulus material. Gestures while Studying Language Animations 2 AbstractThis study examined whether simultaneously observing and making gestures while studying animations would lighten cognitive load and facilitate the acquisition of grammatical rules. In contrast to our hypothesis, results showed that children in the gesturing condition performed worse on the posttest than children in the non-gesturing, control condition. A more detailed analysis of the data revealed an expertise reversal effect, indicating that this negative effect on posttest performance materialized for children with lower levels of general language skills, but not for children with higher levels of general language skills. The finding that for children with lower language ability, cognitive load did not decrease as they saw more animations provided additional support for this expertise reversal effect. These findings suggest that the combination of observing and making gestures may have imposed extraneous cognitive load on the lower ability children, which they could not accommodate together with the relatively high intrinsic load imposed by the learning task.

Watch Your Step Children! Learning Two-Digit Numbers Through Mirror-Based Observation of Self-Initiated Body Movements

“…Future research could use a delayed test to determine the long-term effects of learning math by mirrorbased observation of one's own movements. Another recent study by Post et al (2013), similar to this study in the aspect of using a combination of observation and making movements (i.e., gesturing) in grammar learning, is consistent with the null results. In this study, children were instructed to simultaneously gesture along with the instruction gestures (i.e., imitation) in the animation.…”

Effects of Hand Gestures on Auditory Learning of Second-Language Vowel Length Contrasts

“…Indeed, recent research has suggested that when learning higher level aspects of an L2 (semantics and syntax), observing (Kelly & Lee, 2012) and producing (Post, Van Gog, Paas, & Zwaan, 2013) gestures help only when cognitive demands are low. The SO group made significant improvement on all four item categories (the word-initial and word-final vowels at the slow and fast rates), whereas the other groups improved in only three of the four categories.…”

Getting the point: Tracing worked examples enhances learning

“…However, Goldstone and Sakamoto (2003) offered different conclusions; they found that students with higher ability were positively affected 168 by concrete and clearly pictorial materials, and an opposite effect was found for students with lower ability. Recently, Post, Van Gog, Paas, and Zwaan (2013) also found that asking students with lower language ability to simultaneously observe and make gestures did not lighten cognitive load and facilitate the acquisition of grammatical rules as expected. Contrarily, the gesturing group had a worse performance than the non-gesturing group.…”