Author information:
(1)The University of Chicago, United States. Electronic address:
mnovack1@gmail.com. (2)The University of Chicago, United States.
Iconic gesture is a rich source of information for conveying ideas to learners.
However, in order to learn from iconic gesture, a learner must be able to
interpret its iconic form-a nontrivial task for young children. Our study
explores how young children interpret iconic gesture and whether they can use it
to infer a previously unknown action. In Study 1, 2- and 3-year-old children were
shown iconic gestures that illustrated how to operate a novel toy to achieve a
target action. Children in both age groups successfully figured out the target
action more often after seeing an iconic gesture demonstration than after seeing
no demonstration. However, the 2-year-olds (but not the 3-year-olds) figured out
fewer target actions after seeing an iconic gesture demonstration than after
seeing a demonstration of an incomplete-action and, in this sense, were not yet
experts at interpreting gesture. Nevertheless, both age groups seemed to
understand that gesture could convey information that can be used to guide their
own actions, and that gesture is thus not movement for its own sake. That is, the
children in both groups produced the action displayed in gesture on the object
itself, rather than producing the action in the air (in other words, they rarely
imitated the experimenter's gesture as it was performed). Study 2 compared
2-year-olds' performance following iconic vs. point gesture demonstrations.
Iconic gestures led children to discover more target actions than point gestures,
suggesting that iconic gesture does more than just focus a learner's attention,
it conveys substantive information about how to solve the problem, information
that is accessible to children as young as 2. The ability to learn from iconic
gesture is thus in place by toddlerhood and, although still fragile, allows
children to process gesture, not as meaningless movement, but as an intentional
communicative representation.
Author information: (1)The University of Chicago, United States. Electronic address:mnovack1@gmail.com. (2)The University of Chicago, United States.Iconic gesture is a rich source of information for conveying ideas to learners.However, in order to learn from iconic gesture, a learner must be able tointerpret its iconic form-a nontrivial task for young children. Our studyexplores how young children interpret iconic gesture and whether they can use it to infer a previously unknown action. In Study 1, 2- and 3-year-old children wereshown iconic gestures that illustrated how to operate a novel toy to achieve atarget action. Children in both age groups successfully figured out the targetaction more often after seeing an iconic gesture demonstration than after seeing no demonstration. However, the 2-year-olds (but not the 3-year-olds) figured out fewer target actions after seeing an iconic gesture demonstration than afterseeing a demonstration of an incomplete-action and, in this sense, were not yetexperts at interpreting gesture. Nevertheless, both age groups seemed tounderstand that gesture could convey information that can be used to guide their own actions, and that gesture is thus not movement for its own sake. That is, thechildren in both groups produced the action displayed in gesture on the objectitself, rather than producing the action in the air (in other words, they rarely imitated the experimenter's gesture as it was performed). Study 2 compared2-year-olds' performance following iconic vs. point gesture demonstrations.Iconic gestures led children to discover more target actions than point gestures,suggesting that iconic gesture does more than just focus a learner's attention,it conveys substantive information about how to solve the problem, informationthat is accessible to children as young as 2. The ability to learn from iconicgesture is thus in place by toddlerhood and, although still fragile, allowschildren to process gesture, not as meaningless movement, but as an intentionalcommunicative representation.
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