‘Read my hands not my lips’: Untrained observers' ability to interpret children's gestures
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Ben (C) Fletcher
Ben (C) Fletcher (b. 1952) is Professor of Occupational, Organizational, and Health Psychology and Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire 〈b.fletcher@herts.ac.uk〉. His research interests include the psychology of change, non-verbal signs of internal states and cognition, and FIT Science. His recent publications include
(Inner) FITness and The FIT Corporation (with B. Stead, 2000); ‘FIT: A new framework for stress and health’ (2004); ‘Review: Hand hygiene posters: Selling the message’ (with E. A. Jenner et al., 2005); andThe No Diet Diet: Do Something Different (with D. Penman and K. J. Pine, 2006).
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Karen J Pine
Karen J. Pine (b. 1956) is a Reader in developmental psychology at the University of Hertfordshire 〈
K.J.Pine@herts.ac.uk 〉. Her research interests include developmental psychology and gestures. Her recent publications include ‘Conceptualizing and assessing young children's knowledge of television advertising within a framework of implicit and explicit knowledge’ (with T. Veasey, 2003); ‘The development of representations as children learn about balancing’ (with D. J. Messer, 2003); ‘Barbie or Betty? Pre-school children's preference for brands and evidence for gender-linked dierences’ (with A. S. Nash, 2003); and ‘More gestures than answers: Children learning about balance’ (with N. Lufkin and D. J. Messer, 2005).
Abstract
This study looks at whether untrained observers are able to ‘read’ children's gestures, particularly those that do not match the child's speech. It also explores the frequent claim that gesture-speech mismatches can signal when a child is on the verge of learning a new concept. The diagnostic value of gestures is investigated by asking whether untrained adults are able to recognize this. Forty-two adult participants viewed twelve video clips of children's spontaneous explanations of a balance task. Each child produced only one type of spoken explanation, from four possible ones. However, half of the children conveyed a dierent explanation in their hand gestures. Participants assessed the children who produced gesture-speech mismatches as having more understanding of the concept than ‘matching’ children. Furthermore, they were more likely to assess these children as being on the verge of learning. Thus they were able to glean important information about the child's knowledge state from the children's gestures that was not indicated in speech alone.
About the authors
Ben (C) Fletcher (b. 1952) is Professor of Occupational, Organizational, and Health Psychology and Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire 〈b.fletcher@herts.ac.uk〉. His research interests include the psychology of change, non-verbal signs of internal states and cognition, and FIT Science. His recent publications include (Inner) FITness and The FIT Corporation (with B. Stead, 2000); ‘FIT: A new framework for stress and health’ (2004); ‘Review: Hand hygiene posters: Selling the message’ (with E. A. Jenner et al., 2005); and The No Diet Diet: Do Something Different (with D. Penman and K. J. Pine, 2006).
Karen J. Pine (b. 1956) is a Reader in developmental psychology at the University of Hertfordshire 〈K.J.Pine@herts.ac.uk〉. Her research interests include developmental psychology and gestures. Her recent publications include ‘Conceptualizing and assessing young children's knowledge of television advertising within a framework of implicit and explicit knowledge’ (with T. Veasey, 2003); ‘The development of representations as children learn about balancing’ (with D. J. Messer, 2003); ‘Barbie or Betty? Pre-school children's preference for brands and evidence for gender-linked dierences’ (with A. S. Nash, 2003); and ‘More gestures than answers: Children learning about balance’ (with N. Lufkin and D. J. Messer, 2005).
© Walter de Gruyter
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- On ‘semiotics’ as naming the doctrine of signs
- The Homeric Hymn to Hermes: A journey across the continuum of paradox
- ‘Read my hands not my lips’: Untrained observers' ability to interpret children's gestures
- Application d'une méthode de linguistique textuelle au livre de Ruth
- Connotations in semiotic systems of visual art (through the example of works by M. A. Vrubel)
- Dyadic versus triadic sign models in functional and object-oriented computer programming paradigms
- Life and semiosis: The real nature of information and meaning
- The cybersemiotic model of communication: An evolutionary model of the threshold between semiosis and informational exchange
- The semiotics of ‘difference’ in Roentgen diagnosis
- Mythic algebra uses: Metaphor, logic, and the semiotic sign
- An interview with Peter Ladefoged
- An interview with Elizabeth Closs Traugott
- A note on life as meaning-making machinery
- The Palace of La Moneda: From the trauma of the Hawker Hunters to the therapy of the signs
- A multiculturalist approach to discourse theory
- Formal conditions for the significance-effect
- Decoding speech prosody in five languages
- From Umwelt to Mitwelt: Natural laws versus rule-governed sign-mediated interactions (rsi's)
- The contribution of G. W. Leibniz's ‘cognitio symbolica’ theory to current debates on knowledge and communication management
Artikel in diesem Heft
- On ‘semiotics’ as naming the doctrine of signs
- The Homeric Hymn to Hermes: A journey across the continuum of paradox
- ‘Read my hands not my lips’: Untrained observers' ability to interpret children's gestures
- Application d'une méthode de linguistique textuelle au livre de Ruth
- Connotations in semiotic systems of visual art (through the example of works by M. A. Vrubel)
- Dyadic versus triadic sign models in functional and object-oriented computer programming paradigms
- Life and semiosis: The real nature of information and meaning
- The cybersemiotic model of communication: An evolutionary model of the threshold between semiosis and informational exchange
- The semiotics of ‘difference’ in Roentgen diagnosis
- Mythic algebra uses: Metaphor, logic, and the semiotic sign
- An interview with Peter Ladefoged
- An interview with Elizabeth Closs Traugott
- A note on life as meaning-making machinery
- The Palace of La Moneda: From the trauma of the Hawker Hunters to the therapy of the signs
- A multiculturalist approach to discourse theory
- Formal conditions for the significance-effect
- Decoding speech prosody in five languages
- From Umwelt to Mitwelt: Natural laws versus rule-governed sign-mediated interactions (rsi's)
- The contribution of G. W. Leibniz's ‘cognitio symbolica’ theory to current debates on knowledge and communication management
