Anatomy Shared Article Research

This blog exists for the Anatomy students at Tree of Life Christian School. We will be reading various scientific articles, summarizing our research, and then commenting on others' summaries. We hope to broaden our view of the current research surrounding the human body, and to help others see how truly amazing the design of the human body is.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

With a Wave of the Hand: How using gestures can make you smarter

Summary
Most people have noticed the frequent use of hand gestures during a conversation. You see a man at a hardware store looking ask an employee where the hammers are located while acting out the action of nailing with a hammer. Or you see a woman telling her friends about what her new dress looks like, showing them with her hands how it is shaped. Most people do this. But why do people do this? Is it because they want their listeners to fully understand what they are talking about, or could it possibly be another reason? More and more scientists actually think that the gestures serve the speaker. The belief is that the moving of your hands can help you think more clearly and better. This means that our physical body shapes abstract mental processes so that the speaker can deliver the words easier. Now scientists believe that hand movements may help the person learn, particularly on how students learn how to solve math problems at school.

University researchers did a study focused on how third and fourth graders solving math problems that required grouping. The students who were taught to make a "V" symbol with their index finger and middle finger, pointing to the two terms they were going to combine, learned how to solve the grouping problems better than those who didn't use the "V" gesture. The researchers believe that the use of their hands solidifies the method in the student's mind, such as speech does. This study has brought on a new school of thought, called Embodied Cognition. Embodied Cognition views the basic elements of thought as bodily representations with bases in perception, action, and emotion.

So next time your in a conversation with a friend and they are using hand gestures during the conversation, think about whether they are trying to describe something better, or they are trying to verbalize their thoughts in an easier way.

My Response
This article was very interesting to me because I have a close friend who uses hand gestures just about everytime he talks. It's amazing how deeply connected our brain is to the rest of our body. Even something like this is legitimate evidence for the intelligent design of a creator. Next time I am in a conversation I am definitely going to think about the person's motives in using hand gestures, that is wheter they are using them for me or for themselves.

3 Comments:

Blogger jamie said...

I’m not sure is talking with your hands actually makes you smarter. It makes sense that it is more understandable and comprehensible. Sometimes one word has several meanings or certain people carry connotations with a word that someone else might not have. Our opinions and experiences shape what we interpret a word to mean. Making the motions of what you are talking about connects it to the memories in which you made the same motions and remembering an event would help the speaker talk better about the situation. So I would say that talking with your hands doesn't necessarily make you smarter, but rather clearer in what you wish to convey to your audience. I think people who talk with their hands happen to be more outgoing, maybe more dramatic or expressive, but not necessarily smarter. Acting out things definitely triggers something in our brain and your words may come more easily, but I'm not sure your IQ goes up any more points.

Thursday, May 28, 2009 7:57:00 PM  
Blogger Sarah said...

I often find myself using hand gestures when I talk. I think these hand gestures help me clarify my thoughts and better visualize the topic or idea about which I am talking. The information in this article makes sense to me because I find hand gestures helpful when I am talking. As far as being useful tools for education, I think hand gestures are beneficial in the same way that drawing diagrams and using props are when trying to learn. These visualizations, I think, can definitely help students learn and comprehend just like they can help people everyday to speak clearly and effectively.

Sunday, May 31, 2009 7:54:00 PM  
Blogger Kayla Nicole said...

This article is very interesting to me because I am almost always using hand gestures in a conversation. As I think back it actually makes sense that I may have been doing the gestures for my own sake rather than trying to clarify my point. The fact that it may help teach children is amazing but also could be controversial. It could be a possibility that hand gestures help children who are visual learners but are no help at all to audible learners. It would be interesting to see if there is a link between visual learners and people who talk using hand gestures.

Monday, June 01, 2009 1:05:00 PM  

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