Journal article
Abstract thinking in space and time: using gesture to learn math
Cogniție, creier, comportament, Vol.15(4), pp.553-570
12/01/2011
Abstract
Mathematical concepts and words for objects are generally thought of as abstract and disembodied. In this theoretical paper, I review a line of research demonstrating that hand gestures are important for mathematical thinking. Gestures are spontaneously produced in conversations about mathematical concepts, these gestures can influence speakers' processing, and gestures are implicated in changing children's and adults' mathematical thinking. This work offers evidence that mathematical representations may not be as abstract and disembodied as they seem, but rather may be supported by embodied representations. This example suggests that the body, and its affordance for action in the world, is important for conceptual development. A substantial body of work has examined the gestures children and adults make when they talk and found them to be a revealing window on the processes of cognitive change. In her paper, Susan Wagner Cook (this volume) reviews this work along with her own recent work examining the gestures children and adults produce when they talk about math. She argues that the combined data point to a new view of our mathematical knowledge as embodied. Here I comment on Cook's arguments, highlighting how this view of math as embodied offers new insights for our understanding of classic developmental themes, in particular, the continuity versus discontinuity dichotomy. In addition, I present a brief summary of recent work on how children use their bodies in another realm typically thought of as abstract-understanding referential intent. I present an embodied account of how children disambiguate speaker intent in novel naming situations and argue that, as in the case of embodied math, an embodied view of cognition can help elucidate developmental mechanism. Reprinted by permission of the Romanian Association of Cognitive Sciences
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Abstract thinking in space and time: using gesture to learn math
- Creators
- Susan Wagner CookLarissa K Samuelson
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Cogniție, creier, comportament, Vol.15(4), pp.553-570
- ISSN
- 1224-8398
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/01/2011
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984071755702771
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