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George Herbert Mead is one of the most important theorists of everyday life. He provided the theoretical basis for what was later to become known as symbolic interactionism. Mead drew on behaviorist theory to argue that behavior is based on a pattern of stimulus and response, but added that, in the case of human behavior, the mind intervenes between the stimulus and the response to provide for increasingly complex forms of action. In developing his ideas, Mead distinguished between the act and the gesture. The act refers to interactions with objects, whereas gesture refers to interactions with other people (or animals). Gestures are the movements that serve as stimuli to others. Both humans and animals employ gestures; however, it is only humans that employ significant gestures. These are gestures that involve thought before a response. For Mead, the most important kind of gesture is the significant symbol. This is the kind of significant gesture that elicits the same kind of response in others that it is trying to elicit. Language, a vocal gesture, is the most complex and important type of significant symbol for human beings.