Hands in the air: Using ungrounded iconic gestures to teach children conservation of quantity.

Ping, Raedy M.; Goldin‐Meadow, Susan

doi:10.1037/0012-1649.44.5.1277

Cited by 155 publications

(132 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Observing others' movements could support episodic memories as encoding of the words relied on the context or the situation elements. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that observing gestures can have positive effects on learning (e.g., Church, Ayman-Nolley, & Mahootian, 2004;Cook, Duffy, & Fenn, 2013;Ping & Goldin-Meadow, 2008). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Integrated Physical Exercises and Gestures on Preschool Children’s Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning

et al. 2015

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Research suggests that integrating human movement into a cognitive learning task can be effective for learning due to its cognitive and physiological effects. In this study, the learning effects of enacting words through whole-body movements (i.e., physical exercise) and part-body movements (i.e., gestures) were investigated in a foreign language vocabulary task. Participants were 111 preschool children of 15 childcare centers, who were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Participants had to learn 14 Italian words in a 4-week teaching program. They were tested on their memory for the words during, directly after, and 6 weeks after the program. In the integrated physical exercise condition, children enacted the actions indicated by the words to be learned in physical exercises. In the non-integrated physical exercise condition children performed physical exercises at the same intensity, but unrelated to the learning task. In the gesturing condition, children enacted the actions indicated by the words to be learned by gesturing while remaining seated. In the conventional condition, children verbally repeated the words while remaining seated. Results confirmed the main hypothesis, indicating that children in the integrated physical exercise condition achieved the highest learning outcomes. Implications of integrated physical exercise programs for preschool children's cognition and health are discussed. AbstractResearch suggests that integrating human movement into a cognitive learning task can

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Integrated Physical Exercises and Gestures on Preschool Children’s Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning

et al. 2015

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“…Research conducted by Perry et al (1995) showed that children learned more about the mathematical concept of equivalence when the teachers' instructions were accompanied by gestures than by verbal instructions only. Similarly, Ping and Goldin-Meadow (2008) revealed that children who had received instruction with speech and guiding gestures (indicating object sizes) in the explanation of a Piagetian conservation task outperformed children who had received instruction with speech only. In the learning of psychomotor tasks, such as paper folding (Wong et al ), the positive effects of observing movements have been explained by the existence of a mirror-neuron system (Van Gog et al 2009).…”

Section: Observing Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2015

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It was investigated whether task-related body movements yield beneficial effects on children's learning of two-digit numbers and whether these learning effects are affected by mirror-based self-observation of those movements. Participants were 118 first-graders, who were randomly assigned to two movement conditions and two nonmovement control conditions. In the movement conditions, children were instructed to build two-digit numbers by making and simultaneously verbalizing out loud different sized steps representing the smaller units the numbers consisted of (e.g., the number B36^was construed by saying out loud B10,^B20,^B30,^B35,^B36,^while making three big steps, one medium, and one small step) on a ruler across the floor. In one of the movement conditions, the children were additionally asked to observe their steps in a mirror. In the first conventionally taught control condition, the children were asked to verbally build and mark the two-digit numbers on a ruler depicted on a sheet of paper. In the second control condition, children were seated before the ruler across the floor, and after verbally constructing the two-digit number, they had to walk to the appropriate position of the number on the ruler across the floor. In the subsequent test phase, children's knowledge of two-digit numbers was assessed by a final math test. The results confirmed the hypothesis that the movement conditions lead to higher test performance than the non-movement condition and revealed that test performance was not differentially affected by mirror-based self-observation.

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“…Importantly, making gestures has been shown to lower cognitive load during math problem solving (Goldin-Meadow, Nusbaum, Kelly, & Wagner, 2001) and to foster learning: When instructed to gesture while explaining math problems, children added new problem-solving strategies to their repertoire and remembered more from a subsequent lesson Gestures while Studying Language Animations 5 from the teacher (Broaders, Cook, Mitchell, & Goldin-Meadow, 2007) and this beneficial effect was retained after four weeks (Cook, Mitchell, & Goldin-Meadow, 2008). Observation of gestures was also found to be effective for children's learning (Ping & Goldin-Meadow, 2008). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Post

Gog

Paas

et al. 2013

Computers in Human Behavior

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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.

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Hands in the air: Using ungrounded iconic gestures to teach children conservation of quantity.

Cited by 155 publications

References 32 publications

Effects of Integrated Physical Exercises and Gestures on Preschool Children’s Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning

Effects of Integrated Physical Exercises and Gestures on Preschool Children’s Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning

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

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

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