Body Language Research Articles

The biomechanics of public speaking: Enhancing political communication and persuasion through posture and gesture analysis

Effective public speaking is critical in political communication, where non-verbal cues such as posture, gestures, facial expressions, and body movements significantly influence audience perception. Despite the known impact of these biomechanics, research in diverse cultural contexts remains limited. This study addresses this gap by examining the biomechanics of public speaking in the Philippines, focusing on 16 political speakers and 211 audience participants from varied demographic backgrounds. The study uses advanced motion capture technology, high-definition video recordings, and audience perception surveys to investigate how specific non-verbal elements affect audience engagement and perception. Challenges include accurately measuring and isolating the effects of these biomechanical factors amidst varied cultural and linguistic influences. The findings reveal that an upright posture significantly enhances perceived confidence (r = 0.72, p = 0.003) and trustworthiness (r = 0.65, p = 0.004), while high-frequency gestures positively correlate with clarity (β = 0.47, p = 0.008) and persuasiveness (β = 0.66, p = 0.003). Head movements, such as nodding, significantly increase audience engagement (F-value = 5.73, p = 0.002), and high-intensity smiling enhances emotional responses (t-value = 4.86, p = 0.001). These results underscore the importance of biomechanics in political communication, demonstrating that specific gestures and postures are critical in conveying confidence and persuasiveness. The study contributes to the field by offering insights into the strategic use of body language, particularly in multicultural settings, to enhance audience engagement and speaker effectiveness.

Making my voice and owning its future

This article explores disabled experience and the future of technologies relating to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). This field includes people’s use of AAC devices, typically in combination with other...

Māori ancestral knowledge of communication

Emerging from a need for culturally grounded speech-language therapy in Aotearoa (New Zealand), this study examined Māori (Indigenous people of New Zealand) values and perspectives on communication held within a data set of 2,669 pepeha (ancestral sayings). Analysis of literal translations, context, literary features, and philosophical meanings led to identification of 368 sayings relevant to communication. Thematic analysis of these sayings resulted in eight themes: (a) āhuatanga karere (message and messenger characteristics), (b) mana reo (power and influence of language), (c) reo ā-tinana (body language), (d) te whē (sound), (e) tohu (signs, instructions, marks, visions, omens), (f) whakarongo (listening, hearing, obeying), (g) whanaungatanga (relationships), and (h) whatumanawa (open expression of emotion). These themes identify a holistic view, beyond interpersonal interactions, emphasising the interconnectedness of the human, spiritual, and natural worlds in ancestral communication. Findings contribute a deeper understanding of traditional Māori communication and add to the foundations guiding culturally grounded therapeutic approaches.

‘The Charismulator’ – charisma simulator: A study of a new VR intervention to improve charisma

Abstract Charisma, often seen as an innate trait, is now understood as leader signaling grounded in values, symbols, and emotions, suggesting it can be developed through interventions. However, the method for cultivating charisma remains unclear. This study examines nonverbal communication strategies, highlighting the potential of body language, facial expressions, and vocal modulation to enhance charisma. Additionally, we introduce a virtual reality training program focused on these cues and explore the role of audience presence in boosting the intervention’s effectiveness by fostering self-awareness and behavioral adjustments. Results of a controlled randomized experiment with virtual reality-trained participants and online charisma assessors demonstrated significant improvements in observer-rated charisma from pre- to post-training compared to the control group. Moreover, training in front of a virtual audience yielded the expected outcomes. This study sheds light on charisma theory, its potential virtual reality training application, and its implications for leadership development.

OpenOPAF: An Open Source Multimodal System for Automated Feedback for Oral Presentations

Providing automated feedback that facilitates the practice and acquisition of oral presentation skills has been one of the notable applications of multimodal learning analytics (MmLA). However, the closedness and general unavailability of existing systems have reduced their potential impact and benefits. This work introduces OpenOPAF, an open-source system designed to provide automated multimodal feedback for oral presentations. By leveraging analytics to assess body language, gaze direction, voice volume, articulation speed, filled pauses, and the use of text in visual aids, it provides real-time, actionable information to presenters. Evaluations conducted on OpenOPAF show that it performs similarly, both technically and pedagogically, to existing closed solutions. This system targets practitioners who wish to use it as-is to provide feedback to novice presenters, developers seeking to adapt it for other learning contexts, and researchers interested in experimenting with new feature extraction algorithms and report mechanisms and studying the acquisition of oral presentation skills. This initiative aims to foster a community-driven approach to democratize access to sophisticated analytics tools for oral presentation skill development.

EduLive: Re-Creating Cues for Instructor-Learners Interaction in Educational Live Streams with Learners' Transcript-Based Annotations

Educational live streaming has become a complement to in-person teaching. While synchronous instructor-learner communication is useful, the technology-mediated nature of live streaming can obscure many interaction cues (e.g., learners' facial expressions and body language), which dampens the instructors' ability to respond to remote learners' needs. We explore the opportunity of leveraging real-time transcripts generated from instructors' audio as a basis for re-creating interaction cues. Transcripts can be leveraged to reveal the content of live streams in a form that learners can trace back and annotate, and such annotations can be further aggregated and presented to instructors as signals to assist them in tracking learners' engagement. By designing and evaluating our proof-of-concept prototype system, EduLive, we show that instructors benefited from the summative information extracted from learners' annotations, and the context provided by the transcript enhanced their ability to answer learners' questions. Our system contributes to the design space of social annotations in CSCW by employing social annotations in educational live streaming scenarios.

Human motion and musical expression: Exploring the link between physical movement and emotional resonance in performance

Musical performance has traditionally been understood as an auditory experience, with emotions conveyed primarily through sound. However, emerging research highlights the role of physical movement—gestures, posture, and body language—in enhancing emotional expression and creating a deeper connection between performers and their audiences. While existing studies have explored some aspects of this relationship, there is limited understanding of how specific movements modulate emotional responses across different musical genres. This study addresses these gaps by investigating the interaction between human motion and musical expression, focusing on the emotional resonance experienced by performers and audience members. The need for this study arises from the lack of comprehensive data on the correlation between movement and emotional engagement during musical performances, particularly concerning different genres. Using motion capture, biometric sensors, and facial recognition technology, the research analyzed the performances of professional and amateur musicians across classical, jazz, and contemporary music. Audience members’ emotional responses were captured through physiological data and post-performance surveys. One limitation of this study is that it focused solely on live performance environments, leaving digital or virtual performances unexplored. Key findings reveal that expressive movements increased emotional intensity ratings by 1.6 points (p < 0.001), with heart rate rising by 6.9 BPM (p < 0.0012) and electrodermal activity increasing by 1.6 µS (p < 0.0008). Movement synchronization with musical elements, especially during climaxes, strongly correlated with heightened emotional responses (r = 0.85, p < 0.01). Classical performances exhibited the highest synchronization between movement and emotion, with audience emotional intensity peaking at 8.3 on a Likert scale.

A Semiotic Analysis of Body Language in Trump’s Attacks

A Semiotic Analysis of Body Language in Trump’s Attacks

THE POWER OF BODY LANGUAGE. HOW TO LEARN TO SPEAK BODY LANGUAGE

This article discusses the essence of the concept of body language, the history of its development as a subject, classification of gestures, non-verbal speech, and provides information on whether non-verbal signals are innate or acquired, whether they are transmitted genetically or acquired in some other way.

Penguatan Keterampilan Komunikasi dan Kepercayaan Diri Melalui Public Speaking: Penerapan Metode Presentasi dan Bermain Peran di Kalangan Siswa SMP

Public speaking is an essential skill that should be mastered by all individuals, including middle school students, as it is valuable not only in academic settings but also in social and professional contexts. This community service initiative aims to enhance public speaking skills and boost the confidence of middle school students through a combination of presentation and role-playing methods. The training consisted of a series of sessions where students were given opportunities to prepare and deliver structured presentations, as well as practice speaking in simulated, real-life scenarios. The results of the program showed significant improvement in both the verbal and non-verbal communication skills of the students. Those who initially lacked confidence became more capable of organizing effective presentations, utilizing appropriate body language, and responding to their audience effectively. Additionally, the training helped students overcome anxiety associated with public speaking, increasing their courage to speak in front of others. While some students may still require a more personalized approach, the overall methods proved to be effective in developing public speaking skills. This training is expected to provide long-term benefits in students' soft skill development and could serve as a sustainable program within schools.

Adopting Verbal and Non-verbal Communication Strategies in Oral Discussion by Omani University Students

Effective communication, both verbal and non-verbal, is key to the success of university students in academic and professional settings. This paper examines how Omani university students use these communication strategies during oral discussions, focusing on the balance between spoken words and non-verbal cues like body language and eye contact. The study finds that while students mostly rely on verbal communication, non-verbal signals play an important role in making their message clearer and more impactful. Recommendations are offered to help students better integrate both forms of communication, improving their readiness for both academic challenges and future careers.

Cross-Modal Harmony: Low-Rank Fusion for Enhanced Artificial Emotion Recognition

Emotion recognition has become a subject of considerable interest in recent times, owing to its diverse and far-reaching applications in various fields. These applications span from enhancing human-computer interactions to assessing mental health and improving entertainment systems. The proposed study presents a novel approach for emotion recognition by fusing audio and video modalities using low-rank fusion techniques. The proposed methodology leverages the complementary nature of audio and video data in capturing emotional cues. Audio data often encapsulates tone, speech patterns, and vocal nuances, while video data captures facial expressions, body language, and gestures. However, the challenge lies in effectively integrating these two modalities to enhance recognition accuracy. To address the challenge, it employs low-rank fusion, a dimensionality reduction technique that extracts the most informative features from both modalities while minimizing redundancy. Furthermore, it presents the implementation of the chosen low-rank fusion algorithm in a real-world emotion recognition system. The results can contribute to advancing the field of emotion recognition by providing a practical and efficient solution for combining audio and video data to achieve more robust and accurate emotion classification. Keywords: Deep Learning; Emotion Recognition; Human-Computer Interaction; Low-Rank Fusion; Multimodal Fusion.

How Dancers Enhance Emotional Expression Through Body Language

This paper examines the intricate dynamics of emotional expression in dance, focusing on how dancers utilize body language to articulate a wide array of feelings. It discusses the significance of facial expressions, gestures, and postures in conveying the emotional depth of a performance. The role of cultural influences is also explored, highlighting how different dance styles and historical contexts shape the way emotions are expressed and perceived. The paper delves into the challenges that dancers encounter in their quest to communicate emotions effectively and the various techniques they employ to overcome these challenges. It also touches upon the importance of cultural sensitivity and the need for dancers to understand the cultural significance of their movements. The conclusion of the paper emphasizes the evolving nature of emotional expression in dance, reflecting on the art form s ability to adapt and innovate while maintaining its core capacity to evoke emotional responses from audiences. The study of emotional expression in dance is not only a celebration of the art form but also an exploration of the human capacity for empathy and connection, showcasing the power of dance as a universal language of emotion.

If instruments could talk: Trace-based communication and its implications in the curriculum for trainee-supervisor interactions

Contrary to common belief, effective communication is not only achieved via verbal exchanges of information. It requires a thoughtful combination of verbal and non-verbal cues since, in some circumstances, verbal communication in healthcare may be impossible, unfavourable or ineffective. The semiotics literature suggests that effective non-verbal communication goes beyond body language and gestures. It also includes the use of objects (i.e. traces) to transmit a message. We call this trace-based communication (TBC). In this perspective paper, we offer some reflections from our experience researching and using trace-based communication for training purposes. Our intention was to bring further awareness to the opportunities that trace-based communication might enable, including opportunities to enhance trainee-supervisor interactions, and consequently inform curriculum design.

Exploring 2020 #ENDSARS Protests’ Components in Nigeria within the Schematics of Social Semiotics

This study examined the semiotic resources of the October 2020 #ENDSARS protests in Nigeria, manifesting the affordances operational in the protests. The investigation beckoned on 13 different communicative semiotic configurations, employing Halliday’s grammatical group rank, to delineate the structures. This paved the way for tables and graphs to account for the written modes’ recurrent components. Kinesics such as proxemics, gestures, and gaze supported the analysis, providing relevant semantic implications to non-verbal elements and body language of protesters. This investigation indicated that #ENDSARS hashtag, functioned in variegated forms, as the initiator of the protest, socializing people even without notable leaders. The texts illustrated the suffering of the people from SARS operatives’ gun-punch coercion, as exemplified in a boy-like image’s head, and the cry of agony illuminated through a gestural movement of mouths and hands. Parallel to that is the metaphorical castigation of an innocent young man, manifested through chained hands. Significantly, the research revealed the collective unanimity of the protesters, demonstrated through clenched fists, epitomizing camaraderie of purpose. The protesters made their call to abrogate SARS operations pleasurably-funny in the appearance of a clown and a sacrificial lamb. Given that the idea of social justice is non-negotiable. Demanding a just course should not lead to brutality; the government should rather respond to the request of protesters to fulfill promises made during electioneering campaigns.

Costume and Body Language of Ethnic Dance Drama under Semiotics: An Analytical Study

Dance drama is a dramatic form with dance as its main means of expression, which has been developed in China for less than a century. In recent years, the development of Chinese dance drama, especially ethnic dance drama, has shown an obvious upward trend. Several excellent dance drama works have appeared, forming some distinctive dance drama styles, among which The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting, The Peacock, and The Railway to Tibet are quite representative. This study will investigate the above three dance dramas based on semiotics. An analysis of costume and body language is carried out in this study based on the semiotics, from the morphological characteristics of dance and costume. In addition, the author makes a comprehensive exploration of the integration of the external form, fabric, structure and pattern of costume and body language, tries to reveal the way of interaction between costume symbols and body symbols in dance drama, and summarises the artistic connotation of the integration of dance costumes and body language. Then, it provides ideas for the role creation and education of dance drama.

The role of body language in teaching methods

The role of body language in teaching methods

"Such pushing and shoving… and the smell! Why ever would they allow these people in to the Academy” sociability and body language of Madrid's museums visitors (19th century)

In 1828 preparations were being made for the opening of the first public museum in Spain: the Royal Prado Museum. Along with the placement of the works of art and the control of their security, visitors were an essential part of the organisation of the establishment. Although the valued role of museums as democratisers of culture has been emphasised, more recent studies have observed that the first visitors to European museums were not from all social strata. This article aims to analyse the public museum as an arena of sociability and to investigate the involvement of social elites in both the control of access and the imposition of behavioural models within these "temples of the arts.” For this reason, this paper approaches the debate around the concept of citizenship. On the one hand, it explores the gradual opening of museums to all social classes and the social debates surrounding it. On the other hand, it analyses the use of the museum as a space of symbolic battle for the appropriation of these scenarios and the creation of exclusion dynamics to limit interactions between social classes. Therefore, the text analyses, among other sources of analysis, the body language of visitors. An object of study that has been understudied but which can offer us interesting answers.

Computational elucidation of nonverbal behavior and body language in music therapy

Abstract Music therapy has shown efficacy in serious and chronic conditions, mental disorders, and disabilities. However, there is still much to explore regarding the mechanisms through which music interventions exert their effects. A typical session involves interactions between the therapist, the client, and the musical work itself, and to help address the challenges of capturing and comprehending its dynamics, we extend our general computational paradigm (CP) for analyzing the expressive and social behavioral processes in arts therapies. The extension includes bodily and nonverbal aspects of the behavior, offering additional insights into the client's emotional states and engagement. We have used this version of the CP, which employs AI pose estimation technology, image processing, and audio analysis, to capture therapy-related psychometrics and their intra- and inter-session analysis. The CP is applied in a real-world proof-of-concept study, and the results enable us to pinpoint meaningful events and emergent properties not captured by the human eye, complementing the therapist's interpretations. The resulting data may also be useful in other scientific and clinical areas.

Transfer learning with YOLOV8 for real-time recognition system of American Sign Language Alphabet

Sign language serves as a sophisticated means of communication vital to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, relying on hand movements, facial expressions, and body language to convey nuanced meaning. American Sign Language (ASL) exemplifies this linguistic complexity with its distinct grammar and syntax. The advancement of real-time ASL gesture recognition has explored diverse methodologies, including motion sensors and computer vision techniques. This study specifically addresses the recognition of ASL alphabet gestures using computer vision through Mediapipe for hand movement tracking and YOLOv8 for training the deep learning model. The model achieved notable performance metrics: precision of 98%, recall rate of 98%, F1 score of 99%, mean Average Precision (mAP) of 98%, and mAP50-95 of 93%, underscoring its exceptional accuracy and sturdy capabilities.