Individual differences in working memory predict the efficacy of experimenter-manipulated gestures in first-grade children.

Why is instructional gesture ineffective in some contexts? And what is it about learners that predicts whether they will learn from gestures? This between-subjects linear measurement training study compares gesture instruction to two controls-operant action and transient action-in a diverse sample of first-grade students (N = 174, Mage  = 7.01 years; Nfemale  = 84; Nmale  = 90, 10% Latinx-identified; 70% White; 6% Black; 6% Asian; 18% multiple racial categories, Mincome  = $59,750, SDincome  ≈ $25,000; data collected 03/16-03/19). Results show that instructor-manipulated gestures may be less effective than demonstrative actions in part because they are iterative and do not leave a lasting trace. Verbal working memory, but not spatial, positively predicted an ability to learn from gesture and transient action in children with the lowest context knowledge.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  Child Development

• Publication date

  2024-03-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Education, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/cdev.14083PMID 38426550
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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