Differences in Gesture Usage Between Spontaneous and Planned Speech

Abstract

The aim of this study was to answer the following research question: “How does gesture usage differ between spontaneous and planned speech?”. The study was conducted by having participants take part in an interview task and having them learn their answers from a script and repeat the interview with the participants having prepared their answers. Both tasks were recorded audio-visually, and the co-speech gestures were analysed. Three differences were discovered: In planned speech the gesture space is smaller, the gestures are better structured, and there is a stronger congruence between gesture and speech. All three of these findings are likely a result of the fact that the production of spontaneous speech and planned speech have different cognitive processes which strengthens the idea that there is a cognitive link between speech and gesture.