14 DAY TRIAL // French researchers at the University of Notre Dame, in Paris, say that the way in which people hold their hands plays an important role in how well they will be able to learn and remember a certain experience, fact or action.
Hand gestures are very important during those critical moments when people learn something new. Depending on their position, individuals may become more adept at remembering that particular piece of information, or simply forget it a lot faster than other data.
In order to verify their hypothesis, the investigators asked test subjects to participate in a series of cleverly-devised experimental setups. In one of them, people were asked to hold an object while learning about it, while others were asked not to touch the object.
Members of the first group fared a lot better when it came to remembering details about the process they had studied itself. On the other hand, people in the second group were more likely to notice similarities and consistencies about the objects, and remember then better than their peers could.
This investigation was conducted by Notre Dame psychologist Dr. James Brockmole and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Christopher Davoli. They were able to demonstrate that holding an object in hand tends to focus people's attention to details, PsychCentral reports.
While this is a remarkable ability if individuals want to analyze something in detail, and learn more about what differentiates it from another, similar object, this tendency also prevents them from noting similarities between nearly-identical objects that are colored differently.
According to the study leaders, such differentiation in perception must have solid evolutionary roots. “Near the body, and especially near the hands, attention to detail is crucial because subtle differences among objects can differentiate the harmful from the benign,” Brockmole explains.
“We needed to recognize which berries were poisonous and which were not; what snakes will bite and which will not. On the other hand, people can think about objects that are farther away from the body in more categorical terms since details are less important,” the expert adds.
An interesting aspect of this study – which will appear in an upcoming issue of the medical journal Memory and Cognition – is its use for improving education methods. Given the recent transition from using books and computers to tablets, the new knowledge may be applied to teach children.