On what happens in gesture when communication is unsuccessful

Previous studies found that repeated references in successful communication are often reduced, not only at the acoustic level, but also in terms of words and manual co-speech gestures. In the present study, we investigated whether repeated references are still reduced in a situation when reduction would not be beneficial for the communicative situation, namely after the speaker receives negative feedback from the addressee. In a director–matcher task (experiment I), we studied gesture rate, as well as the general form of the gestures produced in initial and repeated references. In a separate experiment (experiment II) we studied whether there might (also) be more gradual differences in gesture form between gestures in initial and repeated references, by asking human judges which of two gestures (one from an initial and one from a repeated reference following negative feedback) they considered more precise. In both experiments, mutual visibility was added as a between subjects factor. Results showed that after negative feedback, gesture rate increased in a marginally significant way. With regard to gesture form, we found little evidence for changes in gesture form after negative feedback, except for a marginally significant increase of the number of repeated strokes within a gesture. Lack of mutual visibility only had a significant reducing effect on gesture size, and did not interact with repetition in any way. However, we did find gradual differences in gesture form, with gestures produced after negative feedback being judged as marginally more precise than initial gestures. The results from the present study suggest that in the production of unsuccessful repeated references, a process different from the reduction process as found in previous studies in repeated references takes place, with speakers appearing to put more effort into their gestures after negative feedback, as suggested by the data trending towards an increased gesture rate and towards gestures being judged as more precise after feedback

Conceptual and lexical effects on gestures:the case of vertical spatial metaphors for time in Chinese

The linguistic metaphors of time appear to influence how people gesture about time. This study finds that Chinese English bilinguals produce more vertical gestures when talking about Chinese time references with vertical spatial metaphors than (1) when talking about time conceptions in the English translations, and (2) when talking about Chinese time references with no spatial metaphors. Additionally, Chinese English bilinguals prefer vertical gestures to lateral gestures when perceiving Chinese time references with vertical spatial metaphors and the corresponding English translations, whereas there is no such preference when perceiving time references without spatial metaphors. Furthermore, this vertical tendency is not due to the fact that vertical gestures are generally less ambiguous than lateral gestures for addressees. In conclusion, the vertical gesturing about time by Chinese English bilinguals is shaped by both the stable language-specific conceptualisations, and the online changes in linguistic choices

On what happens in speech and gesture when communication is unsuccessful

Previous studies found that repeated references in successful communication are often reduced, not only at the acoustic level, but also in terms of words and manual co-speech gestures. In the present study, we investigated whether repeated references are still reduced in a situation when reduction would not be beneficial for the communicative situation, namely after the speaker receives negative feedback from the addressee. In a director–matcher task (experiment I), we studied gesture rate, as well as the general form of the gestures produced in initial and repeated references. In a separate experiment (experiment II) we studied whether there might (also) be more gradual differences in gesture form between gestures in initial and repeated references, by asking human judges which of two gestures (one from an initial and one from a repeated reference following negative feedback) they considered more precise. In both experiments, mutual visibility was added as a between subjects factor. Results showed that after negative feedback, gesture rate increased in a marginally significant way. With regard to gesture form, we found little evidence for changes in gesture form after negative feedback, except for a marginally significant increase of the number of repeated strokes within a gesture. Lack of mutual visibility only had a significant reducing effect on gesture size, and did not interact with repetition in any way. However, we did find gradual differences in gesture form, with gestures produced after negative feedback being judged as marginally more precise than initial gestures. The results from the present study suggest that in the production of unsuccessful repeated references, a process different from the reduction process as found in previous studies in repeated references takes place, with speakers appearing to put more effort into their gestures after negative feedback, as suggested by the data trending towards an increased gesture rate and towards gestures being judged as more precise after feedback

GREEBLES Greeble greeb On Reduction in Speech and Gesture in Repeated References

Previous research has shown that predictable information in speech is often reduced. The present study aims to find out more about reduction with regard to speech but mainly whether reduction also occurs in speech-accompanying gestures. To this end, a director-matcher task was set up in which speakers of Dutch took part. In this task the director had to refer to the same abstract object several times. The repeated references thus obtained were analysed for their reduction in speech and gesture. Speech results show that the number of attributes is reduced and gesture results show that gestures are reduced with regard to the number of hands that are used, their size and their precision. Implications for existing gesture models are discussed

Gestural training benefits L2 phoneme acquisition: Findings from a production and perception perspective

This paper aims to study whether training with gestures benefits L2 phoneme acquisition fromboth a production and perception perspective. In the production study, Dutch learners ofSpanish received pronunciation training for the phonemes /u/ and // in one of four conditions:audio-only, audio-visual, audio-visual with pointing gestures, or audio-visual with iconicgestures. Results show that in general, gestural training benefits L2 phoneme acquisition, butdifferent gestures benefit the acquisition of different phonemes, possibly depending on theircomplexity. The perception study, in which L1 speakers of Spanish judged the L2 Spanishmaterial on accentedness and comprehensibility, corroborate the findings from the productionstudy: Including visual information in training generally lowered the perceived accentednessand increased the perceived comprehensibility of speech, but the type of phoneme matters.Together, these studies suggest that gestural training can benefit L2 phoneme acquisition, yetcertain gestures work better for certain phonemes than others.Marieke Hoetjes, Lieke van Maastricht, and Lisette van der Heijde