Kinesic Behaviors Research Articles

The Teaching Interns' Use of Kinesics as Non-verbal Communication in the Classroom

This study investigates the use of non-verbal communication, particularly kinesic behavior, by teaching interns during classroom instruction. The primary participants in this study are fourth-year teaching interns during the academic year 2022-2023 at a private higher education institution in Pagadian City, Philippines. The research approach employed is a case study with a qualitative methodology. The objective of this study is to examine the utilization of kinesics as a non-verbal communication tool by teaching interns in their interactions with students. It seeks to understand how teaching interns commonly employ kinesics and its perceived impact on students. Data for this study were gathered from various sources, including interviews conducted with ten teaching interns, feedback from three cooperating teachers, and insights from two students of the research participants. The findings indicate that the use of kinesics is beneficial for teaching interns. The incorporation of kinesics, such as postures, gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions, has created a dynamic classroom atmosphere and heightened students' engagement and the overall quality of instruction. It has positively influenced students' academic performance, leading to improved results and enhanced classroom behavior. Consequently, the integration of kinesics in the classroom supports effective communication between teaching interns and their students, resulting in clear and conducive instructional environments for learning.

Aspect and tense forms of the Russian verb in describing the kinesic behaviour of the characters in A.P. Chekhov’s stories

Non-verbal semiotics is one of the leading areas of modern communication research. The study is devoted to the topical interdisciplinary issue - the relationship between non-verbal semiotics and Russian grammar. The aim of the research is to characterize the representation of the temporal forms of the Russian verb in describing the kinesic behaviour of literary characters. The elements of nonverbal semiotics were analysed in the stories by A.P. Chekhov “Death of an Official”, “Chameleon”, “Thick and Thin”, “Horse Name”, “Surgery”. The following methods were used as the main ones: descriptive, semantic explication, differential, analytical. The methodological foundations of kinesics as an integrative science were considered, the correlation between the verbal realization of kinema and the temporal forms of the Russian verb was revealed. It has been proved that the most recurrent manifestations of non-verbal semiotics in Chekhov's stories are communicative emblems (in particular, etiquette and ritual), symptomatic emblems and dynamic descriptors, nominated with the help of aspect and tense forms of the Russian verb. Emblems-illustrators are quantitatively less represented in the analyzed stories. They are prospective for further research on the example of Russian literary classics.

Functional characteristics of kinesic communicative components in the English fairy-tale discourse

The article is focused on the study of the organization of the English fairy-tale discourse, presenting a unique semiotic system, and kinesic components of communication manifested in it. The fairy-tale serves as a catalyst in the process of socialization of the personality. It is the first “gender ABC-book” for a child. It outlines explicitly the behavioral communicative patterns fixed in the society. In the article the situations of communicative interaction in the heterogeneous communicative dyad “woman – man” are analyzed. The gender parameters of the participants are taken into consideration. Based on the pragmatic settings of feminine fairy-tale discursive personalities, their strategic behavior is analyzed with the special attention to the functions of kinesic communicative components. In the communicative pair “woman – man” a gaze, smile, and head movements are most significant for female characters. They use these non-verbal components for the implementation of a cooperative or conflict communicative strategy and for the setting of the appropriate tone of communication. It has been established that the kinesic behavior of fairy-tale speakers is multifunctional: it may indicate a woman's willingness to interact or a desire to influence the interlocutor; due to kinesic communicative components, the contacts between speakers are established, and the necessary information is obtained from the communicative partner. They also can indicate the emotional state of the speakers. The analyzed functional and communicative characteristics of the kinesic components meet the expectations of the society regarding the performance of male and female gender roles.

The hands, head, and brow

This paper examines the speech-accompanying gesture and other kinesic behaviour of bilingual English-Māori and monolingual English speakers in New Zealand. Physical expression has long been regarded a key component of Māori artistic and spoken performance, as well as in personal interactions. This study asks (1) if there are gestures more common to or exclusively employed by the Māori population of New Zealand and (2) if their frequency and form is influenced by speaking Māori? More generally, the study considers the effect of different languages on gesture within the same speaker. Four bilingual Māori and six monolingual New Zealanders of European ancestry were recorded providing similar narrations. We report three differences between the speaker groups: a prevalence among Māori speakers for flat-handed motion gestures, gestures of the head, and eyebrow flashes. The findings highlight the probabilistic nature of culturally-grounded variation in gesture and the appropriateness of sociolinguistic approaches to their study.

Overweight and obesity: The efficacy of diets for weight maintenance after weight loss.

The report examines which diets are successful as therapy for overweight and obese persons. In general all considered diets are effective. Besides the food the patients have to change the kinesic behaviour and the lifestyle to achieve sustained success.

Aportes para un análisis multidimensional de la eficacia performativa ritual. Imprevistos en una ceremonia umbanda argentina

En este trabajo busco profundizar en la noción de eficacia performativa como dispositivo para pensar los cuerpos en situaciones rituales, analizando el rol principal que ocupa la kinesis en cultos basados en fuertes estímulos sensoriales, como las religiones de matriz africana en Argentina. Para ello cruzaré dos ejes de análisis: la performance como puesta en escena lograda por medio de múltiples medios comunicativos que reflejan tanto como producen el orden social del grupo religioso, y la performatividad como mecanismo de producción social y subjetiva dependiente de un contexto y una cosmología particulares. Retomando los trabajos sobre eficacia ritual de Tambiah y los avances teóricos de Citro sobre los comportamientos kinésicos en situaciones festivo-rituales, propondré un ejercicio analítico-metodológico que permita ahondar en la eficacia de un ritual umbanda en Argentina.

The coordination of talk and action in the collaborative construction of a multimodal text

This paper explores how speech and action are coordinated in a web-based task undertaken by two high school students working collaboratively at the computer. The paper focuses on the coordination involved in the interactions between the two students and the computer screen, keyboard, and mouse, and explores the temporal synchrony and ‘matching’ points between speaking and typing, and speaking and mouse movements, within and between participants. Examples include coordination of speaking words aloud whilst typing, coordination of reading aloud from the screen and mouse movements, and coordination between participants, as when one individual is typing and the other talking. The discussion draws on the literature describing the coordination of language and action, kinesic behaviour, and nonverbal communication, including gesture, which have the potential to mediate conversation. Results indicate most coordination of talk and action is at the beginning of the action. Sometimes work is done to ensure coordination, either by slowing down the talk or pausing or stretching sounds mid-utterance. Talk that is coordinated temporally to some action on the screen is precise; in other words even when action and talk are mismatched (e.g., she is not talking about what she is doing), talk and action can start and finish together.

Pseudo-parliamentary discourse in a Communist dictatorship: Dissenter Pârvulescu vs. dictator Ceauşescu

This article presents a case study of an unprecedented political event that occurred in Romania during the Communist dictatorship. In 1979, at the 12th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, Constantin Pârvulescu, a high-ranking party official, took the floor unexpectedly and attacked the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. We examine the contrasting interaction patterns displayed during the open confrontation that occurred between Pârvulescu's accusatory anti-Ceauşescu discourse and the subsequent anti-Pârvulescu discourses of three of Ceauşescu's close political allies glorifying Ceauşescu and the Communist party. In order to enable a better understanding of the political and socio-cultural setting of the Communist party congress proceedings, as well as of the concrete implications of sequencing and simultaneity of speech, interpersonal behaviour and shifts in speech targeting, a multimodal approach has been integrated with a discourse-analytical approach. These two combined approaches were used to examine the videotaped event and to account for the overall picture of the interaction, which consists of verbal interaction, kinesic behaviour (such as gestures, facial expressions, body posture), as well as the use of space. The analytical focus has been on the challenging and aggressive uses of multiple audience-targeted illocutionary acts and perlocutionary effects, the strategic uses of personal pronouns and the manipulative uses of semiotic metaphors.

Surgical considerations in serious wounds of the limbs

This paper explores how speech and action are coordinated in a web-based task undertaken by two high school students working collaboratively at the computer. The paper focuses on the coordination involved in the interactions between the two students and the computer screen, keyboard, and mouse, and explores the temporal synchrony and ‘matching’ points between speaking and typing, and speaking and mouse movements, within and between participants. Examples include coordination of speaking words aloud whilst typing, coordination of reading aloud from the screen and mouse movements, and coordination between participants, as when one individual is typing and the other talking. The discussion draws on the literature describing the coordination of language and action, kinesic behaviour, and nonverbal communication, including gesture, which have the potential to mediate conversation. Results indicate most coordination of talk and action is at the beginning of the action. Sometimes work is done to ensure coordination, either by slowing down the talk or pausing or stretching sounds mid-utterance. Talk that is coordinated temporally to some action on the screen is precise; in other words even when action and talk are mismatched (e.g., she is not talking about what she is doing), talk and action can start and finish together.

Nonverbal Expressions of Liking and Disliking in Initial Interaction: Encoding and Decoding Perspectives

This experiment investigated nonverbal behaviors associated with the encoding and decoding of liking and disliking in initial interaction. Forty-eight adults interacted with participant confederates in an 8-minute problem-solving activity. Beginning at the midpoint of the activity, confederates were instructed to communicate, through nonverbal channels, that they either really liked or really disliked their partners. Kinesic and vocalic behaviors were measured to allow for examination of the encoding patterns chosen to communicate these messages. Participants and third-party observers provided their perceptions of confederates and their behaviors, to allow for examination of the behaviors that were decoded as expressions of liking and disliking. Results of this study allowed the examination of the simultaneous encoding and decoding of nonverbal behaviors, the precise measurement of vocalic behaviors, and a clarification of nonverbal behaviors most influential in reaching judgments of liking and disliking.

Nonverbal communication and business success

Attempts to link nonverbal communication and business success by advocating that salespeople in particular should be aware of nonverbal communication and what it means. Claims that verbal and nonverbal communication, taken together, provide more complete information and states that women are innately more knowledgeable than men when it comes to understanding nonverbal communication. Covers and explains metalanguage, paralanguage, body motion or kinesic behaviour, emblems, illustrators, affect displays, regulators, adaptors, physical characteristics, touching behaviour, proxemics, artifacts, and environmental factors. Outlines the opportunity for feedback, covering reinforcement behaviour, response‐matching, accommodation, and identifying indicators of deception. Asserts that understanding of nonverbal communication is vital in cross‐national negotiations and can lead to business success in selling or persuasive roles such as advertising.

Nonverbal behaviors as indices of arousal: Extension to the psychotherapy context

In an investigation guided by the premise that overt nonverbal indices may often be practical and valid indicators of arousal, Burgoon, Kelley, Newton, and Keeley-Dyreson (1989) found different nonverbal behaviors associated with arousal intensity and with positively and negatively valenced arousal. The current investigation extends that research to a new context, examining (1) the ability of a global measure of observed arousal and specific nonverbal indices of arousal intensity and valence to detect presumed nonlinear arousal changes during psychotherapy, (2) the differential impact of nonverbal indicators across phases of a therapy session, and (3) the relationship of nonverbal indicators to therapy outcome. Raters judged all-channel global arousal or specific kinesic and vocalic nonverbal behaviors during Focused Expressive Psychotherapy (FEP) sessions, during which high levels of negative arousal are evoked. Manifest global arousal, random movement/self-adaptors, and kinesic pleasantness conformed to hypothesized nonlinear patterns across time within therapy sessions. Nonverbal correlates of manifest global arousal varied across therapy phases. Moderate manifest arousal, especially random movement/self-adaptors and vocal tension, and high vocal expressiveness during the middle of the therapy work session were most predictive of patients' self-reported resolution at the end of therapy.

'I See What You Mean': The Role of Kinesic Behaviour in Listening and Implications for Foreign and Second Language Learning

'I See What You Mean': The Role of Kinesic Behaviour in Listening and Implications for Foreign and Second Language Learning

Mapping nonverbal behavior on the interpersonal circle.

Whether and how personality is encoded in nonverbal behavior is reexamined. Behavior mapping, a recently developed approach designed to produce more focused answers, is used. Conversations among same-sex triads were scored for numerous seated kinesic behaviors. After winnowing some behaviors according to standard psychometric and behavior-mapping criteria, 6 behaviors of the head, hands, and legs could be clearly mapped on the interpersonal circle. Three of the 4 bipolar axes of the circle were primary axes for at least 1 behavior, although most are aligned with the Gregarious-Extraverted to Aloof-Introverted axis. Behavior mapping reaffirms that the interpersonal circle orders actual behavior (is a merely cognitive ordering) and that it is a fruitful method for specifying behavior in terms of personality or vice versa. Connections between nonverbal behavior and personality have been investigated for many years, with mixed results. Many significant relations between dispositions and nonverbal actions have been summarized in reviews by Harper, Wiens, and Matarazzo (1978), Mehrabian (1981), Bull (1983), and others. Nevertheless, pessimistic views are also found, even among these reviewers. In concluding his review of the area, Bull described the fruits of many studies as not impressive (1983, p. 87).

Attitude similarity, relational history, and attraction: The mediating effects of kinesic and vocal behaviors

Perhaps the most well‐known finding in the study of interpersonal relations is that attitude similarity leads to attraction. Recent research has found that the similarity‐attraction effect is diminished after informal social interaction. The mediating effects of verbal and nonverbal behaviors in attenuating or strengthening the effects of similarity on attraction have not themselves been studied. The present experiment tests the similarity‐attraction relationship in a conversational setting while investigating the effects of kinesic and vocal behaviors as mediators. Forty dyads, with similar and different attitudes who were newly acquainted or well known to one another, participated in 30 minute, non‐directed conversations. Their conversations were videotaped and coded for several vocal and kinesic indicators of involvement. After taping, subjects filled out attraction and satisfaction measures. Analyses revealed that attitude similarity affected attraction and satisfaction, even after an intervening inte...

The Role of Non-verbal Communication in Service Provision and Representation

A social interaction perspective is presented in order to conceptualise the processes of service provision and representation and the ‘consumer’ evaluations thereof. The role of kinesic behaviour is then explored and an experiment demonstrating these effects on service representation evaluation is reported. High levels of gaze and body movement are found to influence ‘consumers' to act as proposed as well as to evaluate the presenter of the proposal more highly. In addition, kinesic treatments appear to result in better evaluations of the service which is the subject of the proposal. Recommendations for kinesic training and recruitment criteria are presented.

Nonverbal communication performance and perceptions associated with reticence: Replications and classroom implications

Two studies replicated and extended Burgoon and Koper (1984) by examining the nonverbal behavior patterns, relational message interpretations and credibility evaluations associated with communication reticence. Study One (N = 110) examined multiple kinesic and vocalic behaviors exhibited by reticents during a dyadic advocacy/decision‐making task and relational interpretations by unacquainted interaction partners. Study Two (N = 60) examined similar behaviors displayed during a persuasive speaking assignment and credibility evaluations assigned by classmates. In both studies, nonverbal manifestations were sufficiently modest and in some cases transitory to challenge the traditional view that reticence produces pronounced performance decrements. Evaluations, although unfavorable, were also not seriously detrimental. Education implications are discussed.

The effects of distance and individual differences in arousability on nonverbal involvement: A test of discrepancy-arousal theory

“Mutual influence in human interaction” refers to the tendency for persons to alter their verbal, vocal, and kinesic behaviors in response to the intensity, frequency or duration of those behaviors emitted by their partners. Numerous explanations of these processes have been put forward involving principles of approach-avoidance conflict, arousal, reward, and cognitive processes. These explanations are reviewed with special attention given to an arousal based theory, discrepancy-arousal. This theory holds that mutual influence is primarily the result of arousal changes due to the degree of discrepancy of partner's behavior from the receiver's expectation. The theory predicts that persons who differ in reaction to arousal should also differ in their response to a partner's immediacy. This hypothesis was tested on high and low sensation seekers under conditions of near and normal distances during an interview. Several different behavioral responses were coded, including eye gaze, posture and orientation, smiles and laughter, object- and body-focused gestures, vocalization, pauses, and latencies to respond. The hypothesized interaction did not materialize with a median split on sensation seeking. A measure of state-trait sensation seeking (STSS) was developed. The interaction between distance and a median split on the state-trait measure was significant for eye gaze and posture and orientation, with the high STSS subjects compensating less than the low STSS subjects.

The role of intonation as a cue to turn taking in conversation

The sociolinguistic literature concerning turn taking in conversation is extensive, but also limited in certain respects. Most studies have focused on kinesic behaviors and semantic/pragmatic devices for maintaining the flow of conversations, while few have investigated the role of prosody, especially in non-face-to-face turn taking. Moreover, most researchers describe the production of conversational behaviors rather than their perception by conversationalists. The present study attempts to fill these gaps through a series of listening tests incorporating both face-to-face (FF)and non-face-to-face (NFF) conversational excerpts, in order to discover how intonation is used as a perceptual cue for turn taking. Utterances isolated from these conversations were used to construct two test tapes; each set was also filtered so that the utterances were unintelligible but retained some prosodic information, notably intonation. Subjects then made turn beginning and turn end judgments for each item on the four resulting tapes. The findings show a great amount of variability in listener use of intonation as a cue to both FF and NFF speaker status, with rising fundamental frequency the strongest cue (to turn ends) in both conditions. The results also illustrate the highly interactive nature of prosody and other types of cues (e.g. syntactic and contextual information).

Emotional loading in dyadic interviews.

This experiment represented an exploratory investigation of the effects of the emotional loading (anxiety-arousing potential) of questions in a dyadic interview. 40 male subjects (inmates in a correctional institution) participated as interviewees. The four variables evaluated were: emotional loading, kinesic behavior, paralinguistic behavior, and content of interview question. A 2 × 2 × 2 × 4 nested design incorporating repeated treatments and complete randomization within a Latin square arrangement of treatment presentation was employed. A replication of the study using another interviewer was also conducted. Observational coding and attitudinal posttest questionnaires yielded the experimental data for examination. The results suggest that emotional loading primarily affects indices of verbal anxiety, while tending to override nonverbal responding. Effects of interviewer were evaluated in light of their interactive modification of the interview process.