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Why Gesture?: How the hands function in speaking, thinking and communicating
Edited by Ruth Breckinridge Church, Martha W. Alibali and Spencer D. Kelly
[Gesture Studies 7] 2017
► pp. 175–196

Chapter 8
One function of gesture is to make new ideas

The action-cognition transduction hypothesis

| University of Wisconsin
I propose that gestures and actions create ideas through action-cognition transduction, whereby actions predictably induce cognitive states in a fashion reciprocal to ways that cognition drives action. The action-cognition transduction hypothesis challenges classical mentalist notions by placing cognition and action on equal footing for influencing the reciprocal system. Gestures are distinguished from non-communicative actions in their relationship to the physical task environment and to concurrent speech and thought. Through transduction, actions influence nonverbal processes such as insight, emotional state, and procedural knowledge; while gestures appear to influence both nonverbal and verbal processes, including articulation of latent ideas and inference making. Thus, one important function of gesture is that it supports generative thought processes, helping people to make new ideas.
Article outline
  • Transduction between cognition and action
  • Do actions induce cognitive states?
  • Gestures foster new ideas
  • General discussion
  • References
Published online: 26 April 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.7.09nat
References (78)
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