Creating a communication system from scratch: gesture beats vocalization hands down

Frontiers in Psychology

Nicolas Fay¹ 

关键词: alignment;    gesture;    vocalization;    multimodal;    signs;    language origin;    embodiment;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00354

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY