The role of gestures in understanding
speech
Experiment
Click on examples below to download and play each video
file (1.8 Mb) of a person saying the sentence:
“put the
book there now”
Watch
each animation three times (not more!). Try to mix up the order of viewing
(e.g., example 2, then example 4, then example 1…etc).
Print
out this page or write on some paper your answers to the following two questions by
circling the appropriate word and number:
1)
Which word is the intended focus of the sentence? That is:
Which word is being emphasized?
-circle a word: “PUT”, “THE”, “BOOK”,
“THERE”, or “NOW”
2) Do you think the focus of the sentence was emphasised
clearly?
-indicate your level of
agreement with the statement:
The focus of the sentence was emphasised clearly.
-circle a number:
1 = strongly agree
2
= agree
3
= neither agree nor disagree
4
= disagree
5
= strongly disagree
Instructions for
downloading video animations:
Right-click to download the AVI video files to a folder on your
hard drive and play them using a video player - Windows Media Player usually works well and keeps the lips and sound
synchronized okay. If instead your web browser is set to play files
automatically when you click on a link, the graphics might not display properly.
When
all have been downloaded, go to the folder and click on the files to play. It
may open automatically with Windows Media Player and play properly. If it does
not, right click the AVI file and choose Media Player as the program to
view the file. If you see nothing, try a different video player.
Other programs that should play these AVIs correctly
include: Real
Player and WinDVD (often bundled with Windows XP).
Word perceived:
|
“put” “the”
“book” “there” “now””
|
Clarity rating:
|
1 2 3 4
5
|
|
|
Word perceived:
|
“put” “the”
“book” “there” “now””
|
Clarity rating:
|
1 2 3 4
5
|
|
|
Word perceived:
|
“put” “the”
“book” “there” “now””
|
Clarity rating:
|
1 2 3 4
5
|
|
|
Word perceived:
|
“put” “the”
“book” “there” “now””
|
Clarity rating:
|
1 2 3 4
5
|
|
|
Word perceived:
|
“put” “the”
“book” “there” “now””
|
Clarity rating:
|
1 2 3 4
5
|
|
|
Word perceived:
|
“put” “the”
“book” “there” “now””
|
Clarity rating:
|
1 2 3 4
5
|
|
|
Word perceived:
|
“put” “the”
“book” “there” “now””
|
Clarity rating:
|
1 2 3 4
5
|
|
|
Word perceived:
|
“put” “the”
“book” “there” “now””
|
Clarity rating:
|
1 2 3 4
5
|
|
|
Background
After trying the examples…check to see where the hand
gesture was synchronized (i.e., which word was nearest to the gesture) for each
of examples 1 through 8:
Examples
used in the experiment
Reference:
Treffner, P. J., Peter, M., & Kleidon, M. (2008). Gestures and phases: The dynamics of
speech-hand communication. Ecological Psychology, 20,
32-64.