The Effect of Lateral Temporal Gestures on Recall

Indianapolis, IN

Although research has identified many types of gestures related to time and has studied the overall effectiveness of these gestures, the current study observes whether the chosen direction of those gestures affects the recall of time related information. Specifically, gestures that place the past on the speaker's left and the future on the right along a Personal Timeline (PT) will be compared to gestures that travel in the opposite direction, along an Audience Timeline (AT). Meanwhile gestures as a whole will also be compared to no gestures. Recall will be measured by percent correct on a seven question online quiz, taken by participants after viewing a six minute video lesson. I hypothesize that the participants viewing gestures made along the AT will demonstrate improved recall over those viewing gestures made along the PT, and also hypothesize that groups viewing gestures as a whole will demonstrate improved recall over the group not viewing gestures in the lesson. Data will be collected and results will be discussed.