Young children's understanding of gestures in art

Abstract

The present study examined 3-, 6-, and 8-year-old children's understanding of gestures in art and the relationship between understanding of gestures and grasp of theory of mind. Sixty-eight kindergarten and primary school children were shown two trials of 14 gestures in a matching-to-sample task followed by an interview. In the matching-to-sample task, children were asked to match a painting depicting a target gesture to one of two sample paintings, one painting depicting a similar gesture to the target gesture, the other painting depicting another variable similar to the target painting. The reaction time of children during the matching-to-sample task was recorded. In the interview, children were explicitly asked the meaning of each target gesture. Children were also tested on three theory of mind tasks assessing grasp of false beliefs. Children were sensitive to gestures in art from as early as 3 years of age and their ability to understand gestures in art increased with age. Furthermore, results showed a strong relationship between understanding gestures in art and theory of mind. It is concluded that the reasoning required to understand the meanings of gestures in art is similar to the reasoning required to understand the mental states of others in order to predict their behaviour.