Abstract:

Visuo-spatial ability is the main component of spatial cognitive ability, which forms the spatial model of the external world in the human brain and thinks in mind through transformation of model paradigm. However, when there are few landmarks or reference objects in an unfamiliar environment, individuals with low visuo-spatial ability are often prone to get lost. So, for these individuals with low visuo-spatial ability, how to solve this problem is worth exploring. Previous researches have proved that gestures help individuals to learn. However, most studies focused on improving the ability of route learning by observing tracking gestures, while there were few studies exploring the effect of generating tracking gestures, and there was no research exploring the role of generating tracking gestures in route learning on 3D maps.
The route learning task (Figure 1) was adopted as the main paradigm in the present study to explore the enhancing effect of generating tracking gestures in the route learning process of 3D map.A total of 53 participants were recruited in Experiment 1 to explore the improving effect of generating tracking gestures on visuo-spatial learning of 2D map and 3D map. 2 (map type: 2D vs. 3D) × 3 (gesture: no gesture vs. generating tracking gesture) × 2 (gender: male vs. female) mixed ANOVA was adopted and results (as in Figure 2) showed that main effect of gesture was significant, F(1, 52) = 58.73, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.53, and so as the main effect of map type, F(1, 52) = 14.46, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.22. There’s a significant interaction between gesture and map type, F(1, 52) = 4.55, p = 0.03, η_p² = 0.08. However, main effect of gender was not significant, p > 0.05, which is inconsistent with previous studies. And the other interactions between factors was not significant as well, ps > 0.05. The results mean that generating tracking gestures significantly improve the performance of visuo-spatial learning in both 2D map and 3D map, and the enhancing effect of generating tracking gesture on route learning of 3D map was higher than that of 2D map.In Experiment 2, another 49 participants were recruited to investigate the enhancing mechanism of generating tracking gestures in route learning using the occlusion paradigm. A one-way ANOVA was adopted, and Figure 3 presents the results as follow: main effect of gesture was significant, F(2, 47) = 24.05, p < 0.001, and the best performance happened under the condition of generating and not covering tracking gesture. Experiment 2 revealed that visuo-spatial learning was enhanced by the visual information and sensorimotor information provided by tracking gestures.Experiment 3 recruited another 53 participants to explore the methods of enhancement of visuo-spatial learning based on tracking gesture.
The results (as in Figure 4) showed a significant main effect of gesture, F(2, 49) = 26.65, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.658, and the enhancing effect of generating self-referential tracking gestures was significantly higher than that of observing others' tracking gestures, p < 0.001. It also proved that enhancing physical presence can improve the effect of visuo-spatial learning.
In summary, these results suggest that (1) generating tracking gestures can enhance visuo-spatial learning; (2) visual information and sensorimotor information provided by tracking gestures play important roles in visuo-spatial learning, which confirms image maintenance theory and further complements the embodied embodied-external cognitive perspective of gesture; (3) increasing physical presence can enhance visuo-spatial learning, which validates the embodied-external cognitive perspective of gesture; (4) compared with observing other's tracking gestures, generating self-referential tracking gestures leads to a better performance, that is, generating self-referential tracking gestures is a more effective way to improve visuo-spatial learning.

Key words: generating tracking gesture, visuo-spatial learning, image maintenance theory, embodied-external cognitive perspective of gesture