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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human Behavior

Background:

  • Metacognition involves monitoring cognitive processes.
  • Gestures are hypothesized to influence spatial thinking and metacognition.
  • Existing research on gesture's impact on cognition is ongoing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if the metacognitive system monitors the effects of gestures on spatial thinking.
  • To examine the influence of using gestures on performance and confidence during a spatial task.
  • To determine if factors like task difficulty and sex moderate the effects of gestures.

Main Methods:

  • Participants (N=59) completed a mental rotation task with varying difficulty levels.
  • Participants evaluated their confidence in answers under either a gesture or control condition.
  • Performance and confidence ratings were compared between the gesture and control groups.

Main Results:

  • Performance and confidence were higher in the gesture condition compared to the control.
  • This positive effect of gestures was observed primarily in females, especially on difficult problems.
  • Encouraging gestures led to decreased performance and confidence in males.

Conclusions:

  • Gestures play a role in metacognition, selectively influencing spatial thinking.
  • Task difficulty and individual sex are crucial variables in understanding the gesture-cognition link.
  • The findings highlight the nuanced interaction between embodiment, metacognition, and cognitive performance.