Types Of Gestures Research Articles

Why is she scratching her head? Children’s understanding of others’ metacognitive gestures as an indicator of learning

Successful collaborative learning is supported by the coordination of one’s own learning with the learning performance of others. One type of cues that guides the understanding of others’ learning performances is their metacognitive gestures. In the current study, we investigated (a) whether 3- to 7-year-old children rely on others’ gestures to judge someone else’s learning progress and likely learning performance (Experiment 1; N = 76), (b) whether metacognitive gesture understanding depends on cognitive and theory of mind skills (Experiment 2; N = 59), and (c) whether this knowledge would influence children’s future selective learning and selective teaching choices (Experiment 3; N = 96). Results of Experiment 1 showed that by 3 years of age children can interpret gestures as an indicator of a person’s future performance and that this capacity improves with age, with older children differentiating better between the types of gestures. Experiment 2 revealed that the understanding of metacognitive gestures was not modulated by either nonverbal cognitive capacities or theory of mind skills. Experiment 3 showed a developmental difference in that 5- and 7-year-olds, like adults, consistently selected that successful learners should help someone to learn and that ineffective learners should receive help, whereas 3-year-olds selected learners at chance level. Overall, the results support views that children acquire an understanding of metacognitive gestures early in life and that the translation of this knowledge into selective teaching and selective learning choices improves with age.

Monopolar Transuretral Resection of Prostate in the Urology Department of the University Hospital Pr Bocar S SALL of Kati

Introduction: The objective of this study is to evaluate the results of monopolar TURP in the urology department of the University hospital Pr Bocar Sidy Sall de Kati. Materials and methods: this was a descriptive, cross-sectional and prospective collection study carried out in the urology department of the University hospital Pr Bocar Sidy Sall de Kati. It took place over a period from January 1, 2019 to June 31, 2020, i.e. 25 months. The parameters studied were: the age of the patients, the reason for consultation, the weight of the prostate, the type of gesture, the time of the resection, the duration of hospitalization and the postoperative follow-up. The data was entered and analyzed using Word 2016 and Excel 2016 and SPSS version 21.0 software. Result: we identified 45 cases of monopolar TURP. The age group of 61-80 years was the most represented, i.e. 84.4%. Acute urinary retention was the most common reason for consultation with 31.1%. On digital rectal examination, the prostate looked benign in 66.7% of cases. Escherichia Coli was the most encountered germ, 8 patients or 17.8%. The weight of the prostate was between 30 to 45g or 46.7%. The post-voiding residual between 101ml and 200ml was the most encountered with 31.1%. TURP was the most common type of surgery, 66.7% of cases. The operative time was 45 minutes in 66.7% of cases. The postoperative course was simple in 88.9% of cases. The duration of hospitalization was 3 days in 71.1% of cases. At 3 months after the TURP, the evolution was favorable in 44 patients, i.e. 97.8%. Conclusion: transurethral resection of the prostate is the gold standard in the management of benign prostatic hyperplasia. It has become common practice in our service and is integrated into urological training with satisfactory results.

Wearable in-sensor reservoir computing using optoelectronic polymers with through-space charge-transport characteristics for multi-task learning

In-sensor multi-task learning is not only the key merit of biological visions but also a primary goal of artificial-general-intelligence. However, traditional silicon-vision-chips suffer from large time/energy overheads. Further, training conventional deep-learning models is neither scalable nor affordable on edge-devices. Here, a material-algorithm co-design is proposed to emulate human retina and the affordable learning paradigm. Relying on a bottle-brush-shaped semiconducting p-NDI with efficient exciton-dissociations and through-space charge-transport characteristics, a wearable transistor-based dynamic in-sensor Reservoir-Computing system manifesting excellent separability, fading memory, and echo state property on different tasks is developed. Paired with a ‘readout function’ on memristive organic diodes, the RC recognizes handwritten letters and numbers, and classifies diverse costumes with accuracies of 98.04%, 88.18%, and 91.76%, respectively (higher than all reported organic semiconductors). In addition to 2D images, the spatiotemporal dynamics of RC naturally extract features of event-based videos, classifying 3 types of hand gestures at an accuracy of 98.62%. Further, the computing cost is significantly lower than that of the conventional artificial-neural-networks. This work provides a promising material-algorithm co-design for affordable and highly efficient photonic neuromorphic systems.

Towards a great ape dictionary: Inexperienced humans understand common nonhuman ape gestures.

In the comparative study of human and nonhuman communication, ape gesturing provided the first demonstrations of flexible, intentional communication outside human language. Rich repertoires of these gestures have been described in all ape species, bar one: us. Given that the majority of great ape gestural signals are shared, and their form appears biologically inherited, this creates a conundrum: Where did the ape gestures go in human communication? Here, we test human recognition and understanding of 10 of the most frequently used ape gestures. We crowdsourced data from 5,656 participants through an online game, which required them to select the meaning of chimpanzee and bonobo gestures in 20 videos. We show that humans may retain an understanding of ape gestural communication (either directly inherited or part of more general cognition), across gesture types and gesture meanings, with information on communicative context providing only a marginal improvement in success. By assessing comprehension, rather than production, we accessed part of the great ape gestural repertoire for the first time in adult humans. Cognitive access to an ancestral system of gesture appears to have been retained after our divergence from other apes, drawing deep evolutionary continuity between their communication and our own.

Production of co-speech gestures in the right hemisphere: Evidence from individuals with complete or anterior callosotomy

IntroductionA right-hand preference for co-speech gestures in right-handed neurotypical individuals as well as the co-occurrence of speech and gesture has induced neuropsychological research to primarily target the left hemisphere when investigating co-speech gesture production. However, the substantial number of spontaneous left-hand gestures in right-handed individuals has, thus far, been unexplained. Recent studies in individuals with complete callosotomy and exclusive left hemisphere speech production show a reliable left-hand preference for co-speech gestures, indicating a right hemispheric generation. However, the findings raise the issue if the separate right hemisphere is able to also generate representational gestures. The present study challenges the proposition of a specific right hemispheric contribution to gesture production by differentiating gesture types including representational ones in individuals with complete callosotomy and by including individuals with anterior callosotomy in whom neural reorganization is less extensive. MethodsThree right-handed individuals with complete commissurotomy (A.A., N.G., G.C.) and three right-handed individuals with anterior callosotomy (C.E., S.R., L. D), all with left hemisphere language dominance, and a matched right-handed neurotypical control group (n = 10) were examined in an experimental setting, including re-narration of a nonverbal animated cartoon and responding to intelligence questions. The participants’ video-taped hand movement behavior was analyzed by two independent certified raters with the NEUROGES-ELAN system for nonverbal behavior and gesture. Unimanual right-hand and left-hand gestures were classified into eight gesture types. ResultsThe individuals with complete and anterior callosotomy performed unimanual co-speech gestures with the left as well as the right hand, with no significant preference of one hand for gestures overall. Concerning the specific gesture types, the group with complete callosotomy showed a significant right-hand preference for pantomime gestures, which also applied to the callosotomy total group. The group with anterior callosotomy displayed a significant left-hand preference for form presentation gestures. As a trend, the callosotomy total group differed from the neurotypical group as they performed more left-hand egocentric deictic and left-hand form presentation gestures. DiscussionThe present study replicates the finding of a substantial left-hand use for unimanual co-speech gestures in individuals with complete callosotomy. The proposition of a right hemispheric contribution to gesture production independent from left hemispheric language production is corroborated by the finding that individuals with anterior callosotomy show a similar pattern of hand use for gestures. Representational gestures were displayed with either hand, suggesting that in particular right hemispheric spatial cognition can be directly expressed in gesture. The significant right-hand preference for pantomime gesture was outstanding and compatible with the established left hemispheric specialization for tool use praxis. The findings shed a new light on the left-hand gestures in neurotypical individuals, suggesting that these can be generated in the right hemisphere.

КОНСТРУИРОВАНИЕ СОБЫТИЯ В ДИСКУРСЕ ТЕАТРАЛЬНОЙ ЧИТКИ: КОГНИТИВНО-КОММУНИКАТИВНЫЙ АСПЕКТ

The paper presents a study of the interplay of speech and co-speech gestures which emerges during the public play-reading. The research issue is to identify the specific features and functions of gestures in co-occurring verbal and gestural conceptualizations exemplified by a public reading of D. Danilov’s “A Man from Podolsk”. We assume that gestural features and functions are related to the peculiarities of the public play-reading as a separate type of theatrical discourse. The data obtained were annotated in ELAN program followed by functional annotation with the help of functional annotation of the Russian Emotion Corpus (REC). The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses prove the hypothesis stated and as such reveal the specificity of meaning construal process. It is demonstrated that the functions exhibit certain correlations between the types of gestures; the activity indicators are the highest for referent construal; then come state construal and salient effect. The most frequent are pragmatic gestures (56%) followed by representative and deictic gestures (18% and 12% respectively). Therefore, the data provide evidence to support the role of gestures accompanying speech under the guidance of a single communicative intention in the process of event construal.

Passive RFID-Based Control Interface Integrated Into Clothing and Furniture

This paper presents an early prototype of a passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radiofrequency identification (RFID) -based control interface. By using two types of gestures, hand tap and body movement, these tags are used as furniture-and clothing-integrated inputs. An extra tag, called a gesture initiator, is integrated into the system to prevent unintentional tag detection. After initiating the gesture tag, the user has a specific time to activate any input tag; otherwise, no output is triggered, and the user must reactivate the gesture initiator tag. Both gestures work by making a specific input tag non-detectable to an RFID reader. The prototype system was tested in an office environment in two test setups, furniture and clothing setups, where two testers successfully triggered applications-turning a light-emitting diode (LED) on or off, making a phone call, and sending a message-by using the two gestures. Next, extensive system reliability evaluation and improvement was carried out in versatile practical scenarios, where a tag can be accidentally blocked by the user or by someone else who passes by between the tag and the reader. The final results of this study suggest that the use of a gesture initiator tag significantly improves system reliability. This system can be integrated into clothing or furniture to control applications remotely and make a quick call or message without requiring a mobile phone at hand.

Nonverbal supports for word learning: Prekindergarten teachers’ gesturing practices during shared book reading

Children learn words through recruiting cues from verbal and nonverbal input, yet research in early childhood classrooms has focused almost exclusively on linguistic input. Nonverbal input, such as gestures, supports word learning for young children, particularly those with less linguistic knowledge, through capturing children's attention and enhancing semantic input. The present study investigates Head Start teachers’ gesturing practices as a means for bolstering children's word-learning during shared book reading sessions. Teachers used an evidence-based curriculum supported by professional development. Using multimodal analysis of thirty-three videos of shared book reading, we coded five types of gestures: iconic, beat, representational, deictic, and behavioral. Our analyses controlled for children's nonverbal intelligence and linguistic input from the teacher and the text read aloud. Results from multi-level models indicate teachers gesture frequently, and that total gestures and meaning-focused gestures are related to children's end-of-year receptive vocabulary scores as measured by the PPVT. Teachers are providing additional support and scaffolding for word learning and meaning-making through nonverbal means above and beyond the provided linguistic input. Our results indicate a need to further utilize multimodal analysis to study the role of nonverbal supports during shared book reading to better support young word learners.

DISFLUENCIES AND THEIR GESTURE PROFILES: THE ANALYSIS OF SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING FROM L1 TO L2

The article elaborates on the specifics of simultaneous interpreting as a highly demanding cognitive task which is reflected in the presence of speech disfluencies and co-occurring gestures. The analysis of simultaneous interpreting showed the differences in the distribution of speech disfluencies and demonstrated some correlations between these disfluencies and gestures. The data was obtained from 24 simultaneous interpreters, 12 per each group (Russian-English and Russian-German). The corpus was annotated in ELAN program and analyzed using quantitative and statistical methods. The results suggest that in simultaneous interpreting there are certain differences in the distribution of disfluencies, and in the ways they are accompanied by gestures. Such differences are related to the target language, namely, whether it is English or German. Thus, Russian-English interpreting demonstrated a higher variety of disfluencies accompanied by gestures in comparison to Russian-German interpreting as was shown in the results of the qualitative analysis. For adapters and pragmatic gestures significant statistical co-dependences were found between types of disfluencies and gestures both in Russian-English and Russian-German corpora, however these correlations played out differently for the two target languages. Almost no significant differences were found for the representational and deictic gestures: they did not frequently co-occur with the speech disfluencies in our data base - probably, due to their higher conceptual purport and to the increase of cognitive load during this type of activity.

Gesture use in children with autism spectrum disorder: a scoping review

Purpose: This study reviewed the literature examining type and frequency of gesture use in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in comparison to other populations. The findings can inform future studies and programs targeting the use of gestures as an early indicator of ASD.Methods: A six step search procedure was utilized to identify all articles exploring gesture use in children with ASD in comparison to other populations. Articles meeting inclusion criteria were double coded by the investigators with 97% agreement. Results examining type and frequency of gesture were synthesized and three common themes were identified: comparison group(s), age of participants with ASD, and gesture terminology.Results: A total of 32 studies met inclusion criteria for this study. Of these studies, nine exclusively measured type of gesture, 17 exclusively measured frequency, and 6 measured both type and frequency. Results indicate that children with ASD used different types and frequency of gesture in comparison to other populations. The most studied age range was 4-5 years and most studies used typically developing children as the comparison group. Gesture terminology and definition were extremely variable.Conclusions: Children with ASD are using different types and frequencies of gesture when compared to other populations. More research including younger and more diverse populations is needed to translate these findings into clinical practice. Additionally, there is a need for more consistent use of gesture terminology and definition.

Surgical gestures as a method to quantify surgical performance and predict patient outcomes

How well a surgery is performed impacts a patient’s outcomes; however, objective quantification of performance remains an unsolved challenge. Deconstructing a procedure into discrete instrument-tissue “gestures” is a emerging way to understand surgery. To establish this paradigm in a procedure where performance is the most important factor for patient outcomes, we identify 34,323 individual gestures performed in 80 nerve-sparing robot-assisted radical prostatectomies from two international medical centers. Gestures are classified into nine distinct dissection gestures (e.g., hot cut) and four supporting gestures (e.g., retraction). Our primary outcome is to identify factors impacting a patient’s 1-year erectile function (EF) recovery after radical prostatectomy. We find that less use of hot cut and more use of peel/push are statistically associated with better chance of 1-year EF recovery. Our results also show interactions between surgeon experience and gesture types—similar gesture selection resulted in different EF recovery rates dependent on surgeon experience. To further validate this framework, two teams independently constructe distinct machine learning models using gesture sequences vs. traditional clinical features to predict 1-year EF. In both models, gesture sequences are able to better predict 1-year EF (Team 1: AUC 0.77, 95% CI 0.73–0.81; Team 2: AUC 0.68, 95% CI 0.66–0.70) than traditional clinical features (Team 1: AUC 0.69, 95% CI 0.65–0.73; Team 2: AUC 0.65, 95% CI 0.62–0.68). Our results suggest that gestures provide a granular method to objectively indicate surgical performance and outcomes. Application of this methodology to other surgeries may lead to discoveries on methods to improve surgery.

DRG-Keyboard

We present DRG-Keyboard, a gesture keyboard enabled by dual IMU rings, allowing the user to swipe the thumb on the index fingertip to perform word gesture typing as if typing on a miniature QWERTY keyboard. With dual IMUs attached to the user's thumb and index finger, DRG-Keyboard can 1) measure the relative attitude while mapping it to the 2D fingertip coordinates and 2) detect the thumb's touch-down and touch-up events combining the relative attitude data and the synchronous frequency domain data, based on which a fingertip gesture keyboard can be implemented. To understand users typing behavior on the index fingertip with DRG-Keyboard, we collected and analyzed user data in two typing manners. Based on the statistics of the gesture data, we enhanced the elastic matching algorithm with rigid pruning and distance measurement transform. The user study showed DRG-Keyboard achieved an input speed of 12.9 WPM (68.3% of their gesture typing speed on the smartphone) for all participants. The appending study also demonstrated the superiority of DRG-Keyboard for better form factors and wider usage scenarios. To sum up, DRG-Keyboard not only achieves good text entry speed merely on a tiny fingertip input surface, but is also well accepted by the participants for the input subtleness, accuracy, good haptic feedback, and availability.

Gestures and pauses to help thought: hands, voice, and silence in the tourist guide's speech.

In the body of research on the relationship between gesture and speech, some models propose they form an integrated system while others attribute gestures a compensatory role in communication. This study addresses the gesture-speech relationship by taking disfluency phenomena as a case study. Since it is part of a project aimed at designing virtual agents to be employed in museums, an analysis was performed on the communicative behavior of tourist guides. Results reveal that gesturing is more frequent during speech than pauses. Moreover, when comparing the types of gestures and types of pauses they co-occur with, non-communicative gestures (idles and manipulators) turn out to be more frequent than communicatively-meaningful gestures, which instead more often co-occur with speech. We discuss these findings as relevant for a theoretical model viewing speech and gesture as an integrated system.

A Hands-On Approach to Learning: Gesture Production During Encoding and its Effect on Narrative Recall.

Research has shown that gesture production supports learning across a number of tasks. It is unclear, however, whether gesture production during encoding can support narrative recall, who gesture production benefits most, and whether certain types of gestures are more beneficial than others. This study, therefore, investigated the effect of gesture production during the encoding of a narrative on subsequent narrative recall, and whether individuals' levels of verbal and nonverbal memory moderated this effect. Additionally, this study investigated whether producing certain types of gestures during encoding was more beneficial than others. Participants (N = 90, Mage = 20.43) read aloud a narrative while under instruction to produce gestures, under no specific instruction to produce gestures, or were required to keep their hands behind their back to prevent them from gesturing. Participants completed measures assessing verbal and nonverbal memory. While gesture production during encoding benefitted narrative recall (as measured through specific questions), verbal memory moderated the effect, such that gesture production was more beneficial for individuals with higher than lower verbal memory. Furthermore, producing representational gestures during encoding benefitted recall of points in the narrative at which those gestures were produced, while beat gestures had no effect. Findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying the links between gesture and learning, as well as practical implications in instructional settings.

Temporal Overlap Between Gestures and Speech in Poststroke Aphasia: Is There a Compensatory Effect?

If language production is impaired, will gestures compensate? Evidence in favor of this prediction has often been argued to come from aphasia, but it remains contested. Here, we tested whether thought content not present in speech due to language impairment is manifested in gestures, in 20 people with dysfluent (Broca's) aphasia, 20 people with fluent (Wernicke's) aphasia, and 20 matched neurotypical controls. A new annotation scheme was created distinguishing types of gestures and whether they co-occurred with fluent or dysfluent/absent speech and were temporally aligned in content with coproduced speech. Across both aphasia types, noncontent (beat) gestures, which by their nature cannot compensate for lost speech content, constituted the greatest proportion of all types of gestures produced. Content (i.e., descriptive, referential, and metaphorical) gestures were largely coproduced with fluent rather than dysfluent speech and tended to be aligned with the content conveyed in speech. They also did not differ in quantity depending on whether the dysfluencies were eventually resolved or not. Neither aphasia severity nor comprehension ability had an impact on the total amount of content gesture produced in people with aphasia, which was instead positively correlated with speech fluency. Together, these results suggest that gestures are unlikely to have a role in compensating for linguistic deficits and to serve as a representational system conveying thought content independent of language. Surprisingly, aphasia rather is a model of how gesture and language are inherently integrated and aligned: Even when language is impaired, it remains the essential provider of content.

Early communicative gestures in human and chimpanzee 1-year-olds observed across diverse socioecological settings

We investigated the communicative gestures used by chimpanzee and human infants. In contrast to previous studies, we compared the species at the same age (12–14 months) and used multiple groups living in diverse socioecological settings for both species. We recorded gestures produced by infants and those produce by others and directed toward infants. We classified the gestures into the following types: human-usual, chimpanzee-usual, and species-common; and searched for within species and between species differences. We found no significant differences between groups or species in overall rates of infant-produced or infant-received gestures, suggesting that all of these infants produced and received gestures at similar levels. We did find significant differences, however, when we considered the three types of gesture. Chimpanzee infants produced significantly higher rates of chimpanzee-usual gestures, and human infants produced significantly higher rates of human-usual gestures, but there was no significant species difference in the species-common gestures. Reports of species differences in gesturing in young infants, therefore, could be influenced by investigators’ choice of gesture type. Interestingly, we found that 1-year-old infants produced the gesture of “hold mutual gaze" and that the chimpanzee infants had a significantly higher rate than the human infants. We did not find strong evidence that the specific types of gestural environment experienced by young infants influenced the types of gestures that infants produce. We suggest that at this point in development (before human infants use lots of speech), nonverbal communicative gestures may be equally important for human and chimpanzee infants.

The role of hand gestures in emotion communication: Do type and size of gestures matter?

We communicate emotions in a multimodal way, yet non-verbal emotion communication is a relatively understudied area of research. In three experiments, we investigated the role of gesture characteristics (e.g., type, size in space) on individuals' processing of emotional content. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to rate the emotional intensity of emotional narratives from the videoclips either with iconic or beat gestures. Participants in the iconic gesture condition rated the emotional intensity higher than participants in the beat gesture condition. In Experiment 2, the size of gestures and its interaction with gesture type were investigated in a within-subjects design. Participants again rated the emotional intensity of emotional narratives from the videoclips. Although individuals overall rated narrow gestures more emotionally intense than wider gestures, no effects of gesture type, or gesture size and type interaction were found. Experiment 3 was conducted to check whether findings of Experiment 2 were due to viewing gestures in all videoclips. We compared the gesture and no gesture (i.e., speech only) conditions and showed that there was not a difference between them on emotional ratings. However, we could not replicate the findings related to gesture size of Experiment 2. Overall, these findings indicate the importance of examining gesture's role in emotional contexts and that different gesture characteristics such as size of gestures can be considered in nonverbal communication.

The effect of input sensory modality on the multimodal encoding of motion events

ABSTRACT Each sensory modality has different affordances: vision has higher spatial acuity than audition, whereas audition has better temporal acuity. This may have consequences for the encoding of events and its subsequent multimodal language production—an issue that has received relatively little attention to date. In this study, we compared motion events presented as audio-only, visual-only, or multimodal (visual + audio) input and measured speech and co-speech gesture depicting path and manner of motion in Turkish. Input modality affected speech production. Speakers with audio-only input produced more path descriptions and fewer manner descriptions in speech compared to speakers who received visual input. In contrast, the type and frequency of gestures did not change across conditions. Path-only gestures dominated throughout. Our results suggest that while speech is more susceptible to auditory vs. visual input in encoding aspects of motion events, gesture is less sensitive to such differences.

Hand gestures with verbs of throwing: Collostructions, style and metaphor

AbstractThis paper is an exploratory corpus-based study of a set of verbs of throwing and their co-occurrence with iconic gestures. It is hypothesized that the (in)formality and the metaphoricity of verbs is related to co-speech gesture frequency, but ultimately, relatively little evidence is found for such relationships. A simpler alternative assumption, i.e. that it is mental simulations that drive co-speech gesture alone, has to be dismissed, too, because the frequency of co-speech gesture is markedly different across verbs, ranging from roughly 41 to about 60 per cent (lobvs.fling, respectively). One possible explanation might be that, just as with co-occurrences between purely verbal signs, some verbs are conventionally associated with certain types of gestures to a higher degree. With sufficient data, we can quantify these associations, making use of statistics developed for research on collocation and collostruction.

Nasal Breath Input: Exploring Nasal Breath Input Method for Hands-Free Input by Using a Glasses Type Device with Piezoelectric Elements

Research on hands-free input methods has been actively conducted. However, most of the previous methods are difficult to use at any time in daily life due to using speech sounds or body movements. In this study, to realize a hands-free input method based on nasal breath using wearable devices, we propose a method for recognizing nasal breath gestures, using piezoelectric elements placed on the nosepiece of a glasses-type device. In the proposed method, nasal vibrations generated by nasal breath are acquired as sound data from the devices. Next, the breath pattern is recognized based on the factors of breath count, time interval, and intensity. We implemented a prototype system. The evaluation results for 10 subjects showed that the proposed method can recognize eight types of nasal breath gestures at 0.82\% of F-value. The evaluation results also showed that the recognition accuracy is increased to more than 90\% by limiting gestures to those with a different breath count or different breath interval. Our study provides the first glasses type wearable sensing technology that uses nasal breathing for hands-free input.