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Activation in pSTC during simultaneous gesture-speech integration
Beat gesture and pitch accent: alike or different?

Another current project examines whether beat gesture facilitates memory for contrastive verbal information, similar to pitch accenting.

I vary whether beat gesture and pitch accenting highlights contrasting words in sentences​:

  • Congruently

  • Incongruently

The results will clarify whether beat gesture enhances online recognition of contrastive information only or also enhances memory.

Gesture vs. images in L2 word learning

Research projects

Neural bases of gesture-speech integration

Currently, I'm using magnetoencepholography (MEG) to investigate brain regions sensitive to gesture-speech timing in typical communication.

Relative to speech, I vary whether gestures are:

  • Preceding vs. synchronous vs. following

  • Congruous vs. incongruous in meaning

Contrastive beat gesture
Gesture vs. still images in L2 word learning

This project compares the influences of iconic gesture and still images on the learning of words from a novel second language (L2).

I vary the following factors:

The results will demonstrate whether iconic gestures or still images result in more robust representations of L2 words for adults.

  • Iconic gesture vs. images

  • Congruent vs. incongruent meanings

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