Listeners use gestures to predict upcoming words, virtual avatar study finds

Listeners use gestures to predict upcoming words, virtual avatar study finds

In face-to-face conversations, speakers use hand movements to signal meaning. But do listeners actually use these gestures to predict what someone might say next? In a study using virtual avatars, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Radboud University in Nijmegen showed that listeners used the avatar's gestures to predict an upcoming speech. Both behavioral and EEG data indicated that hand gestures facilitate langu…

Gestures Help Listeners Predict Speech

Humans use hand gestures during conversation, but until now, it wasn’t clear whether listeners actively use these gestures to anticipate speech. A new study using virtual avatars shows that listeners indeed use iconic gestures—like miming typing—to predict what the speaker will say next.