Goldin-Meadow Susan
University of Chicago.
Trends Neurosci Educ. 2014 Mar;3(1):4-6. doi: 10.1016/j.tine.2014.01.002.
When people talk, they gesture. We now know that these gestures are associated with learning-they can index moments of cognitive instability and reflect thoughts not yet found in speech. But gesture has the potential to do more than just reflect learning-it might be involved in the learning process itself. This review focuses on two non-mutually exclusive possibilities: (1) The gestures we see others produce have the potential to change our thoughts. (2) The gestures that we ourselves produce have the potential to change our thoughts, perhaps by spatializing ideas that are not inherently spatial. The review ends by exploring the mechanisms responsible for gesture's impact on learning, and by highlighting ways in which gesture can be effectively used in educational settings.
人们交谈时会做手势。我们现在知道，这些手势与学习相关——它们可以标记认知不稳定的时刻，并反映言语中尚未出现的想法。但手势的作用可能不止于反映学习情况——它可能还参与到学习过程本身当中。本综述聚焦于两种并非相互排斥的可能性：（1）我们看到他人做出的手势有可能改变我们的想法。（2）我们自己做出的手势有可能改变我们的想法，或许是通过将原本不具有空间性的想法空间化来实现。综述最后探讨了手势影响学习的机制，并强调了在教育环境中有效利用手势的方法。
