Graduate and Postdoc Research Projects

Differences in Gesture Comprehension during Mathematical Equivalence Instruction
Sarah Delmar, Kristine Hocker
We are investigating how gesture comprehension impacts the learning of mathematical equivalence in children. This study measures the neural activity of children learning different types of math equivalence problems while they watch instructional videos using action versus gesture instruction. We use a technology called functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure changes in neural activity before, during, and after instruction, to understand how these different types of instruction encourage or inhibit different cognitive functioning that underlies learning.

Effects of animacy on the organization of verb meaning across sign languages
Jeffery Davis, Austin German, Serpil Karabüklü
Factors such as animacy, number, specificity affect agreement marking in both spoken (Aissen 2003; Kizilkaya 2024) and sign languages (Meir 2012; Flaherty 2014; Brentari et al. 2024). Specifically, Brentari et al. (2024) showed that animacy affected ASL and NSL signers’ use of spatial configurations and multi-verb predicates (MVPs). This project extends Brentari et al.’s (2024) findings to two historically unrelated languages that have emerged in distinct social settings: Turkish Sign Language (TİD) and Zinacantec Family Homesign (Z sign). We aim to investigate (i) how animacy impacts the expression of argument relations, and (ii) whether these expressions differ across sign languages used in different community types.

Machine learning methods for gesture annotation
Alfred Chao
This project explores how machine learning may be applied in gesture studies, both as a tool to facilitate time-consuming annotation procedures and as a novel method for quantifying the complexity and information content of different types of gesture.

Cues to Learning Math: Interaction of Face, Gesture & Speech in Guiding Impressions
Uliana Solovieva
Our project examines how gestural and prosodic features shape impressions of children’s confidence, confusion, and readiness to learn while solving math equivalence problems. We compare how these impressions change across audiovisual, visual-only (hands, face, or both), audio-only, and low-pass filtered speech conditions, and use computational tools to extract acoustic and gestural features that drive participants’ judgments.

Teaching in Sync: A Hyperscanning fNIRS Study of Gesture and Neural Coupling in Math Instruction
Marine Wang, Sarah Delmar
Gestures are powerful tools for shaping cognition and fostering learning, yet little is known about how they influence real-time brain-to-brain coupling during instruction. Using hyperscanning functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), this study examines how teacher- and child-generated gestures modulate neural synchrony during one-on-one math instruction.

Beyond Caregiver Talk: The Role of Caregiver Multimodal Responsiveness in Children’s Language Development
Michelle Madlansacay, Jessica Breeze
This project investigates the role that caregivers’ verbal and nonverbal responses play in promoting the development of children’s vocabulary, syntactic, and pragmatic skills. The goals for this study are twofold: to offer a comprehensive description of both parents’ and children’s verbal and nonverbal responsiveness when children are 18 months-old, and to determine whether early parental responsiveness predicts the developmental trajectories of children’s later language and communication skills. 

Gestures transmit gender stereotypes to young children even when language signals equality
Yihan Qian, Anjana Lakshmi

Gesture at Sea: Between Labor and Masculinity
Ellen Richmond