14 DAY TRIAL // Improving communication between human beings is one of the main goals in science today, mostly because such an ability would allow us to avoid countless conflicts. Research in this area has been ongoing for many years, and considerable progress has been made until now. Just recently, a group of specialists managed to determine that speech and gestures might, in fact, be working together, in a bid to enhance comprehension and, therefore, boost communication. Though, in some cultures, it's impolite to point at someone or something, this may actually be beneficial, the new scientific study shows.
The team has managed to prove in a series of lab experiments that comprehension gets a significant boost when hand gestures and words hint at the same concept. It asked volunteers to watch brief video clips of common actions, such as chopping vegetables. The test subjects were then shown brief, one-second clips featuring someone saying a word, as well as a hand gesture. In some of the second type of videos, the words and the gestures were congruent (for example the word “chop” and a slashing gesture), while, in others, they were not.
The participants were then required to reveal whether the second clip had any connection to the first, longer one. Those who saw the congruent trails (matching words and hand gestures) were more likely to respond correctly to this question, whereas those who only saw non-congruent trails performed worse. The work was conducted by Colgate University psychological scientist Spencer Kelly, who collaborated with colleagues Asli Ozyurek and Eric Maris, both at the Radboud University Nijmegen, in the Netherlands. Details of their work appear in the latest issue of the Association for Psychological Science's journal Psychological Science.
“These results have implications for everyday communicative situations, such as in educational contexts (both teachers and students), persuasive messages (political speeches, advertisements), and situations of urgency (first aid, cock pit conversations),” the scientists write in their journal entry. One of the best possible methods that speakers can use to convey their message is to “coordinate what they say with their words with what they do with their hands. If you really want to make your point clear and readily understood, let your words and hands do the talking,” they conclude, quoted by ScienceDaily.