Hands as molecules

Representational gestures used for developing theory in a scientific laboratory

Bibliographic Data

ID4472601
AuthorsL Amaya Becvar, James D Hollan (0000-0001-9568-2646), James Hollan, Edwin Hutchins
Year2005
Volume2005
Issue156
Publication date2005-01-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSemiotica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-1998 • E-ISSN: 1613-3692
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/semi.2005.2005.156.89
OpenAlexW2069135613
LanguageEN
Citations received14

This research examines how representational gestures (Kita 2000) made by scientists during collaborative discussions in a biochemistry lab, are used as cognitive artifacts for formulating scientific theory. By analyzing digital video of lab meetings and interviews with scientists, we find that representational gestures serve to reference and animate portions of existing material structure such as models, diagrams, and graphs. Representational gestures appear to play a significant role in how the scientific group both conceptualize and communicate theories about molecules. We believe that representational gestures operate as instantiations of essential spatiodynamic features that are not efficiently conveyed in other modalities, like language and graphical representations, and as such, are vital resources for shaping theoretical understandings in collaborative, face-to-face scientific activity. Gestures may also serve to package theoretical conceptions into semiotic entities that can be used symbolically in the ‘community of practice’ (Lave 1991). We use a theoretical framework provided by distributed cognition and embodied cognition to examine communal representational gestures as cognitive artifacts produced and modified by the biochemistry lab community during instances where theories are being negotiated

Cognition · Cognitive science · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept) · Gesture · Modalities · Semiotics · Set (abstract data type) · Sociology · Artificial Intelligence · Biomedical Text Mining and Ontologies · Communication · Computer Science · Psychology

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