Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Psychology, Loyola University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Dev Sci. 2018 Nov;21(6):e12664. doi: 10.1111/desc.12664. Epub 2018 Apr 16.
Teaching a new concept through gestures-hand movements that accompany speech-facilitates learning above-and-beyond instruction through speech alone (e.g., Singer & Goldin-Meadow, ). However, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are still under investigation. Here, we use eye tracking to explore one often proposed mechanism-gesture's ability to direct visual attention. Behaviorally, we replicate previous findings: Children perform significantly better on a posttest after learning through Speech+Gesture instruction than through Speech Alone instruction. Using eye tracking measures, we show that children who watch a math lesson with gesture do allocate their visual attention differently from children who watch a math lesson without gesture-they look more to the problem being explained, less to the instructor, and are more likely to synchronize their visual attention with information presented in the instructor's speech (i.e., follow along with speech) than children who watch the no-gesture lesson. The striking finding is that, even though these looking patterns positively predict learning outcomes, the patterns do not mediate the effects of training condition (Speech Alone vs. Speech+Gesture) on posttest success. We find instead a complex relation between gesture and visual attention in which gesture moderates the impact of visual looking patterns on learning-following along with speech predicts learning for children in the Speech+Gesture condition, but not for children in the Speech Alone condition. Gesture's beneficial effects on learning thus come not merely from its ability to guide visual attention, but also from its ability to synchronize with speech and affect what learners glean from that speech.
通过手势（伴随言语的手部动作）教授新概念有助于学习，而不仅仅是通过言语进行教学（例如，Singer & Goldin-Meadow，）。然而，这一现象背后的机制仍在研究中。在这里，我们使用眼动追踪来探索一种经常被提出的机制——手势引导视觉注意力的能力。在行为上，我们复制了之前的发现：与仅通过言语教学相比，儿童在通过言语+手势教学后在后期测试中的表现明显更好。使用眼动追踪测量，我们表明，观看带手势的数学课的儿童与观看不带手势的数学课的儿童在分配视觉注意力方面存在差异——他们更多地看向正在解释的问题，较少看向教师，并且更有可能与教师言语中呈现的信息（即，跟随言语）同步，而不是观看没有手势的课程的儿童。引人注目的发现是，即使这些观察模式积极预测学习结果，但这些模式并不中介训练条件（单独言语与言语+手势）对后期测试成功的影响。相反，我们发现手势和视觉注意力之间存在复杂的关系，其中手势调节视觉观察模式对学习的影响——跟随言语预测言语+手势条件下的儿童的学习，但不预测单独言语条件下的儿童的学习。因此，手势对学习的有益影响不仅来自于其引导视觉注意力的能力，还来自于其与言语同步并影响学习者从言语中获取信息的能力。
