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27th Annual Lecture
Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor
Departments of Psychology and Comparative Human Development
University of Chicago
Friday, March 21, 2025
2:00pm EDT
10 Leidy Labs
3740 Hamilton Walk
The Mind Hidden in our Hands
Gesture is versatile in form and function. Under certain circumstances, gesture can substitute for speech, and when it does, it embodies the properties of language that children themselves bring to language learning, and underscores the resilience of language itself. Under other circumstances, gesture can form a fully integrated system with speech. When it does, it both predicts and promotes learning, and underscores the resilience of gesture in thinking. Together, these lines of research show how much of our minds is hidden in our hands.
A reception will follow the lecture.
