The role of hand gestures in human communication was examined in an experiment that manipulated communicator-receiver visual accessibility and freedom of the communicator's hand movements. While gesturing occurred primarily during periods of speech rather than silence, the visual availability of 10 speakers' hand gestures did not significantly enhance receivers' ability to decode and act upon task-related messages. Hand restraint did not significantly affect speakers' verbal fluency or total verbal output. The mere visual presence of an interactant had a greater impact on speech disfluency than did hand restraint.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CohenA.HarrisonR.Intentionality in the use of hand illustrators in face-to-face communication situations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973, 28, 276–279.
2.
EkmanP.FriesenW.The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica, 1969, 1, 49–98.
3.
GrahamJ.ArgyleM.A cross-cultural study of the communication of extra-verbal meaning by gestures. International Journal of Psychology, 1975, 10, 57–67.
4.
HoffmanS.An empirical study of representational hand movements. (Doctoral dissertation, New York Univer., 1968) Dissertation Abstracts, 1969, 29 (11-B), 4379. (Univer. Microfilms No. 69–7960).
