top of page
Research overview
Gestures, or meaningful hand movements, are typically produced concurrently with speech during normal human communication. Gestures are closely related to speech in both meaning and timing. My research has two principal goals:
-
Determine how gesture contributes to successful communication
-
Show how abnormalities in gesture contribute to ineffective communication
Central hypotheses
Gesture that is closely related to speech in meaning and timing facilitates communication;
gesture and speech that are not closely related fail to benefit—and may even hinder—communication.
Approach
To test my central hypothesis,
I examine normal and disordered communication.
I study children and adults; native and non-native speakers.
I use behavioral and brain imaging methods.
bottom of page