The relationship between gesturing frequency and cognitive style (verbalizer—visualizer)

Abstract

The relationship between cognitive style (verbalizer-visualizer) and individual differences in the frequency of making gestures was investigated. Undergraduate students (35 pairs) participated in an experiment in which they explained a story that they had previously seen to each other under both face-to-face and not face-to-face conditions. Then, they responded to the Verbalizer-Visualizer Questionnaire (VVQ). The explanation sessions were videotaped and beat gestures and representational gestures were counted. The results indicated that while high-VVQ speakers more frequently produced representational gestures in the face-to-face condition than in the non-face-to-face condition, low-VVQ speakers made representational gestures at similar frequencies in both conditions. Neither cognitive style nor the experimental conditions influenced the frequency of beat gestures. It is suggested that the personality factors that increase the frequency of representational gestures are situational dependent (i.e., face-to-face or not face-to-face).View full abstract