Moving to Learn: How Guiding the Hands Can Set the Stage for Learning

Cognitive Science 40 (7):1831-1849 (2016)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Previous work has found that guiding problem-solvers' movements can have an immediate effect on their ability to solve a problem. Here we explore these processes in a learning paradigm. We ask whether guiding a learner's movements can have a delayed effect on learning, setting the stage for change that comes about only after instruction. Children were taught movements that were either relevant or irrelevant to solving mathematical equivalence problems and were told to produce the movements on a series of problems before they received instruction in mathematical equivalence. Children in the relevant movement condition improved after instruction significantly more than children in the irrelevant movement condition, despite the fact that the children showed no improvement in their understanding of mathematical equivalence on a ratings task or on a paper-and-pencil test taken immediately after the movements but before instruction. Movements of the body can thus be used to sow the seeds of conceptual change. But those seeds do not necessarily come to fruition until after the learner has received explicit instruction in the concept, suggesting a “sleeper effect” of gesture on learning.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Productive Failure in Learning Math.Manu Kapur - 2014 - Cognitive Science 38 (5):1008-1022.
Intentions and expectations in temporal binding.Kai Engbert & Andreas Wohlschläger - 2007 - Consciousness and Cognition 16 (2):255-264.
On two mathematical definitions of observational equivalence: Manifest isomorphism and epsilon-congruence reconsidered.Christopher Belanger - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 44 (2):69-76.
Informal Home Education: Philosophical Aspirations put into Practice.Alan Thomas & Harriet Pattison - 2012 - Studies in Philosophy and Education 32 (2):141-154.
On two mathematical definitions of observational equivalence: Manifest isomorphism and reconsidered.Christopher Belanger - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 44 (2):69-76.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-09-24

Downloads
11 (#976,244)

6 months
2 (#670,035)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?