Effects of relative restraint of gesture on performance of novel spatial tasks

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the e#ects of gesturing on the performance of a novel spatial task. Forty participants (graduate and undergraduate students) took part in experiments involving a disk image moving task. The results indicated that (1) the group required to keep their arms folded during the first part of the experiment but not during the second part made more mistakes during the first part than during the second part; (2) the group required to keep their arms folded during the second part but not during the first part made the same number of mistakes during both parts; and (3) these e#ects were observed not only in females, but also in males who tended to make fewer gestures for the task. These results are interpreted as indicating that folding arms inhibits not only gesturing but also body movement, and that body movement a#ects performance for the novel spatial task.