This study investigated whether an instructor's gestures can signal the underlying conceptual structure of a lesson and foster learning. In Experiment 1, 123 undergraduates watched a video comparing eastern and western steamboats in which the instructor produced structure gestures, surface gestures, structure and surface gestures, or neither gesture. Structure gestures represented the compare-and-contrast structure of the lesson: the instructor moved her hands to the left or right when describing eastern or western steamboats, respectively. Surface gestures represented specific features, such as moving hands apart or together to indicate a deep or shallow hull. Experiment 2 (N = 170) replicated and extended findings from Experiment 1 using a lesson comparing innate and acquired immunity. In both experiments, students who saw the instructor use structure gestures outperformed the other groups on an inference test. These results suggest that structure gestures help students mentally organize the content of a lesson according to its macrostructure.

中文翻译：

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使用手势来表示课程结构并促进有意义的学习

这项研究调查了教师的手势是否可以表明课程的基本概念结构并促进学习。在实验1中，123名本科生观看了一段比较东西方汽船的视频，其中教练产生结构手势、表面手势、结构和表面手势，或两者都不做手势。结构手势代表了课程的比较和对比结构：教师在描述东方或西方汽船时分别向左或向右移动她的手。表面手势代表特定特征，例如将手分开或并拢以指示深或浅的船体。实验 2 ( N = 170) 使用比较先天免疫和后天免疫的课程复制和扩展了实验 1 的发现。在这两个实验中，看到教师使用结构手势的学生在推理测试中的表现优于其他组。这些结果表明，结构手势可以帮助学生根据其宏观结构在心理上组织课程内容。