Gesture, Speech, and Lexical Access: The Role of Lexical Movements in Speech Production

Abstract

111 n ic*ithiri-siibjects design t h t w r i e d idietlier speakers ic-ere n l l o w d to gestirre arid the difficiilty of lexicol nccess, spenkers were i*icleotoped ns they described otiitiintetl nctiori cortooris to n listcrier. IVIieri speakers were perttiitred to gestirre, they gestiirrd riiore oJeti diiritig pliroses with spatial coriteiit thari cliiririg phrcises witli other coritetit. Speech with spatiol coriterit itws less Jiierit itheti speakers coriid iiot gestirre tlinri u-lieii they coirld gesture; speech with riotispotid cotiterit WIS 1101 affected by gestiire condition. l'rei*eritirig gestirririg iricreciseci the relotiiv freqiiericy of rior~iirictiire fillecl pciiises iri speech icitli spntial c o~i~c t i t , hiit riot iri speech with other toritent. OrernII, the cffccts of pre\witirig spenkers frotri gestiiririg reseriiblcd those of iricrcosirig tlie difficirlty of 1e.ricril occess by other Iiiemis, except h i t the effects of gestiire restrictioti iewc specific to speech with spntinl coritetit. Tliejitiditigs siipport the hypothesis thnt gestiirnl acconipnriiriierits to sporitorieoiis speech coti fncilitnte nccess to the nieritnl lexicon.

TOT phenomena: Gesture production in younger and older adults.

“…Speakers have been found to gesture more when describing spatial content (Rauscher et al, 1996) and when such content must be recalled from memory, leading researchers to concluded that gesture either helps to maintain spatial information in spatial working memory (Wesp et al, 2001;De Ruiter, 1998) or that it activates key spatio-motoric information in the semantic representation of the searched-for word (Morsella and Kraus, 2004).…”

Lexical gestures and lexical access: a process model

“…6 More recently, Graham and Hayward (1975) analyzed the speech of five speakers who were prevented from gesturing as they described abstract line drawings, and concluded that "… elimination of gesture has no particularly marked effects on speech performance" (p. 194). On the other hand, Rimé (1982) and Rauscher, Krauss and Chen (1996) have found that restricting gesturing adversely affects speech. See for a review of the relevant studies.…”

Development of cross-linguistic variation in speech and gesture: Motion events in English and Turkish.

“…However, the ability to represent and communicate about space is not limited to verbal expressions. Speakers often gesture as they speak, especially when they talk about space (Rauscher, Krauss, & Chen, 1996). Recent research has shown that speech and cospeech gesture form an integrated system (Bernardis & Gentilucci, 2006;Clark, 1996;Kendon, 2004;McNeill, 1992McNeill, , 2005 and that they develop in close relation to each other during childhood (Bates, 1976;Capirci, Iverson, Pizzuto, & Volterra, 1996;McNeill, 1992McNeill, , 2005Nicoladis, Mayberry, & Genesee, 1999;Ö zçalişkan & Goldin-Meadow, 2005).…”