Beattie Geoffrey, Shovelton Heather
School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Br J Psychol. 2005 Feb;96(Pt 1):21-37. doi: 10.1348/000712605x103500.
The design of effective communications depends upon an adequate model of the communication process. The traditional model is that speech conveys semantic information and bodily movement conveys information about emotion and interpersonal attitudes. But McNeill (2000) argues that this model is fundamentally wrong and that some bodily movements, namely spontaneous hand movements generated during talk (iconic gestures), are integral to semantic communication. But can we increase the effectiveness of communication using this new theory? Focusing on advertising we found that advertisements in which the message was split between speech and iconic gesture (possible on TV) were significantly more effective than advertisements in which meaning resided purely in speech or language (radio/newspaper). We also found that the significant differences in communicative effectiveness were maintained across five consecutive trials. We compared the communicative power of professionally made TV advertisements in which a spoken message was accompanied either by iconic gestures or by pictorial images, and found the iconic gestures to be more effective. We hypothesized that iconic gestures are so effective because they illustrate and isolate just the core semantic properties of a product. This research suggests that TV advertisements can be made more effective by incorporating iconic gestures with exactly the right temporal and semantic properties.
有效的沟通设计依赖于一个适当的沟通过程模型。传统模型认为，言语传达语义信息，而身体动作传达有关情感和人际态度的信息。但麦克尼尔（2000）认为，这个模型从根本上说是错误的，一些身体动作，即谈话过程中产生的自发手部动作（象形手势），对于语义沟通是不可或缺的。但是，我们能否运用这一新理论来提高沟通的有效性呢？以广告为重点，我们发现，信息在言语和象形手势之间进行分割的广告（在电视上有可能实现）比那些意义完全存在于言语或文字中的广告（广播/报纸）显著更有效。我们还发现，在连续五次试验中，沟通效果的显著差异一直存在。我们比较了专业制作的电视广告的沟通效果，这些广告中的口头信息要么伴有象形手势，要么伴有图片影像，结果发现象形手势更有效。我们推测，象形手势之所以如此有效，是因为它们能够阐明并分离出产品的核心语义属性。这项研究表明，通过融入具有恰当时间和语义属性的象形手势，可以使电视广告更有效。
