Development of gesture perception and the role of gesture in learning

We interact with our environment through transitive actions. These actions have profound effects on our cognitive systems. When we communicate with others, we produce a different type of action: co-speech gesture. Like transitive action, gesture has been shown to affect cognitive processing and can facilitate understanding during conversation. Furthermore, similar neural networks are recruited when adults perceive actions they have performed, percepts associated with transitive actions, and co-speech gesture. The studies included in this dissertation were conducted to investigate how gesture is processed across development (Study 1) and during learning (Study 2) to understand whether gesture has its effects on communication and learning through similar mechanisms as transitive action. Through neuroimaging and behavioral methods, we asked: (1) Is gesture processed differently across development in regions known to be affected by a history of action production? (2) Are there differences in the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of different types of gesture? In addressing the first question, we established that regions affected by a history of action production are also affected by a history of gesture production. In answering the second question we demonstrated that the relation between speech and gesture has an influence on how gesture is processed. These findings inform our ability to understand gesture within a perception-action framework: gesture can be understood in relation to transitive action, but it is important to also consider the effects of language on gesture processing.