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Creating a Communication System from Scratch: Gesture Beats Vocalization Hands Down
- Source :
- Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 5 (2014)
- Publication Year :
- 2014
- Publisher :
- Frontiers Media S.A., 2014.
-
Abstract
- How does modality affect people’s ability to create a communication system from scratch? The present study experimentally tests this question by having pairs of participants communicate a range of pre-specified items (emotions, actions, objects) over a series of trials to a partner using either non-linguistic vocalization, gesture or a combination of the two. Gesture-alone outperformed vocalization-alone, both in terms of successful communication and in terms of the creation of an inventory of sign-meaning mappings shared within a dyad (i.e., sign alignment). Combining vocalization with gesture did not improve performance beyond gesture-alone. In fact, for action items, gesture-alone was a more successful means of communication than the combined modalities. When people do not share a system for communication they can quickly create one, and gesture is the best means of doing so.
- Subjects :
- embodiment
signs
Gesture
Alignment
multimodal
vocalization
Psychology
BF1-990
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 16641078
- Volume :
- 5
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.60c15c1cc728460c9fe58802aac39095
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00354