Talking with our hands

CHICAGO, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Some people look like they're conducting an orchestra when they talk.

University of Chicago researchers say there's good reason for that: gesturing actually makes it easier to think.

In a study published Wednesday in the November issue of Psychological Science, psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow and three colleagues presented evidence suggesting gesturing "reduces the cognitive load of explanation, freeing (brain) capacity that can be used on a memory task performed at the same time."

The researchers asked 40 children to solve addition problems at a blackboard and 36 adults to solve factoring problems. After solving the problems, participants were given a list of items -- words for children and letters for adults -- to memorize. Then the participants were asked how they solved the math problems -- with and without gesturing.

After completing the math explanations, participants were asked to recall the list of items as a way of measuring the cognitive load imposed by the explanation.

The researchers found participants remembered more than 20 percent more words and letters when they gestured while explaining the math problems compared to when they were not permitted to gesture. Whether the children understood the math problem made no difference in the memory task.

"Talking with our hands may actually make thinking easier," Goldin-Meadow said.

Howard Nusbaum, a member of the research team, theorized gesturing may allow the brain to use visual, spatial or motor representations, rather than just verbal representations.

"This might allow gestures to facilitate information processing and reduce effort," Nusbaum said.

"Whatever the mechanism, our findings suggest that gesturing can help to free up cognitive resources that can then be used elsewhere," the researchers concluded. "Traditional injunctions against gesturing while speaking may, in the end, be ill-advised."