The effect of gesture congruency on the cognitive learning process and learning outcomes

Abstract

It is known meaningful gestures made by the learner can lead to higher learning outcomes, there is still little known about the effect of gesturing on human cognitive processes. This study adds to this knowledge by comparing the effect of not gesturing, performing congruent (meaningful) gestures, and performing incongruent (meaningless) gestures on learning process and learning outcomes. Participants in this study were 94 primary school students between the age of 10 and 12 years old. Learning outcomes were measured with a post-task consisting of five recall questions and five comprehension questions. Cognitive load was measured by a dual task during both the learning-phase and the test-phase. A MANOVA showed no significant effect of gesture congruence on learning outcomes and on cognitive processes. These results are contradicting with previous research, but could be explained by a ceiling effect (i.e, the materials were not sufficiently complex), low internal consistency of the post-task and a low power. Future research should explore whether the results that were found are the consequence of unreliable and invalid measurement, or if there is indeed no effect of gesture congruency on the learning process and learning outcomes.