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Updated: Jul 17, 2026
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Examining Gesture Production in the Presence of Communication Challenges
Published on: January 26, 2024
Evocation of functional and volumetric gestural knowledge by objects and words.
Daniel N Bub1, Michael E J Masson, George S Cree
1University of Victoria, Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 3050 STN CSC, Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 3P5. dbub@uvic.ca
Cognition
|January 24, 2007
Summary
This study reveals that both objects and words automatically trigger knowledge about how to use them (functional) and how to grasp them (volumetric). Evidence also shows these two types of gesture knowledge can be distinct.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Understanding how the brain processes object knowledge is crucial for cognitive science.
- Grasping and functional use represent distinct types of object interaction.
- Previous research has explored action representation but often without distinguishing gesture types.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether both functional and volumetric gesture knowledge are automatically evoked by objects and words.
- To determine if functional and volumetric gesture knowledge can be dissociated.
- To explore implications for theories of action representation and functional imaging.
Main Methods:
- Developed a novel experimental framework using depicted objects and visual words.
- Presented congruent and incongruent gesture cues in relation to contextual items.
- Measured response latency to assess automatic evocation of gesture knowledge.
Main Results:
- Response latencies were longer for incongruent trials, indicating automatic evocation of both functional and volumetric knowledge.
- Objects and words reliably elicited both types of manipulation knowledge.
- Demonstrated that functional gesture knowledge can be evoked independently of volumetric knowledge under specific conditions.
Conclusions:
- Both objects and their corresponding words automatically activate distinct functional and volumetric gesture knowledge.
- The findings support a nuanced understanding of action representation in the brain.
- Results have implications for interpreting brain imaging data and developing theories of object-word processing.
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