The creative interplay between hand gestures, convergent thinking, and mental imagery
Using hand gestures benefits children’s divergent thinking and enhances verbal improvisation in adults. In the present study, we asked whether gestures were also associated with convergent thinking by activating individuals’ verbal lexicon and maintaining their visuospatial imagery. We tested young...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2023-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10079032/?tool=EBI |
| _version_ | 1797850306518712320 |
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| author | Gyulten Hyusein Tilbe Göksun |
| author_facet | Gyulten Hyusein Tilbe Göksun |
| author_sort | Gyulten Hyusein |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Using hand gestures benefits children’s divergent thinking and enhances verbal improvisation in adults. In the present study, we asked whether gestures were also associated with convergent thinking by activating individuals’ verbal lexicon and maintaining their visuospatial imagery. We tested young adults on verbal and visual convergent thinking, controlling for their mental imagery skills. Results showed that gestures and mental imagery skills play a role in verbal but not visual convergent thinking. Regardless of whether gestures were spontaneous or encouraged, we found a negative association between overall gesture frequency and verbal convergent thinking or individuals with low mental imagery, and a positive association for individuals with high mental imagery. Representational gestures benefited verbal convergent thinking for everyone except those who had low mental imagery and no experience with the task. Performing beat gestures hampered verbal convergent thinking in people with lower mental imagery capacity and helped those who had high mental imagery and previous experience with the task. We also found that gesturing can benefit people with lower verbal abilities on verbal convergent thinking, however, high spatial imagery abilities were required for gestures to boost verbal convergent thinking. The current study adds a new dimension to both the embodied creativity literature and the kaleidoscope of individual differences in gesture research. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T18:58:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7848420e11c04a1882cd876a0f7b4f14 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T18:58:13Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-7848420e11c04a1882cd876a0f7b4f142023-04-09T05:32:22ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032023-01-01184The creative interplay between hand gestures, convergent thinking, and mental imageryGyulten HyuseinTilbe GöksunUsing hand gestures benefits children’s divergent thinking and enhances verbal improvisation in adults. In the present study, we asked whether gestures were also associated with convergent thinking by activating individuals’ verbal lexicon and maintaining their visuospatial imagery. We tested young adults on verbal and visual convergent thinking, controlling for their mental imagery skills. Results showed that gestures and mental imagery skills play a role in verbal but not visual convergent thinking. Regardless of whether gestures were spontaneous or encouraged, we found a negative association between overall gesture frequency and verbal convergent thinking or individuals with low mental imagery, and a positive association for individuals with high mental imagery. Representational gestures benefited verbal convergent thinking for everyone except those who had low mental imagery and no experience with the task. Performing beat gestures hampered verbal convergent thinking in people with lower mental imagery capacity and helped those who had high mental imagery and previous experience with the task. We also found that gesturing can benefit people with lower verbal abilities on verbal convergent thinking, however, high spatial imagery abilities were required for gestures to boost verbal convergent thinking. The current study adds a new dimension to both the embodied creativity literature and the kaleidoscope of individual differences in gesture research.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10079032/?tool=EBI |
| spellingShingle | Gyulten Hyusein Tilbe Göksun The creative interplay between hand gestures, convergent thinking, and mental imagery PLoS ONE |
| title | The creative interplay between hand gestures, convergent thinking, and mental imagery |
| title_full | The creative interplay between hand gestures, convergent thinking, and mental imagery |
| title_fullStr | The creative interplay between hand gestures, convergent thinking, and mental imagery |
| title_full_unstemmed | The creative interplay between hand gestures, convergent thinking, and mental imagery |
| title_short | The creative interplay between hand gestures, convergent thinking, and mental imagery |
| title_sort | creative interplay between hand gestures convergent thinking and mental imagery |
| url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10079032/?tool=EBI |
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