Gesture-Speech Integration in Typical and Atypical Adolescent Readers.
Ru Yao, Connie Qun Guan, Elaine R Smolen, Brian MacWhinney, Wanjin Meng, Laura M Morett
Author Information
Ru Yao: China National Institute of Education Sciences, Beijing, China.
Connie Qun Guan: School of Foreign Studies, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China.
Elaine R Smolen: Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States.
Brian MacWhinney: Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Wanjin Meng: Department of Moral, Psychological and Special Education, China National Institute of Education Sciences, Beijing, China.
Laura M Morett: Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, United States.
This study investigated gesture-speech integration (GSI) among adolescents who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and those with typical hearing. Thirty-eight adolescents (19 with hearing loss) performed a Stroop-like task in which they watched 120 short video clips of gestures and actions twice at random. Participants were asked to press one button if the visual content of the speaker's movements was related to a written word and to press another button if it was unrelated to a written word while accuracy rates and response times were recorded. We found stronger GSI effects among DHH participants than hearing participants. The semantic congruency effect was significantly larger in DHH participants than in hearing participants, and results of our experiments indicated a significantly larger gender congruency effect in DHH participants as compared to hearing participants. Results of this study shed light on GSI among DHH individuals and suggest future avenues for research examining the impact of gesture on language processing and communication in this population.
