Researcher:
Arslan, Burcu

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PhD Student

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Burcu

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Arslan

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Arslan, Burcu

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2021 - 20234

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Researcher Of Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.58f4dd35-5fad-4bd8-b94b-4fe9a069f601

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    Ageing, working memory, and mental imagery: understanding gestural communication in younger and older adults
    (Sage Publications Ltd, 2021) N/A; Department of Psychology; Arslan, Burcu; Göksun, Tilbe; PhD Student; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; N/A; 47278
    Ageing has effects both on language and gestural communication skills. Although gesture use is similar between younger and older adults, the use of representational gestures (e.g., drawing a line with fingers on the air to indicate a road) decreases with age. This study investigates whether this change in the production of representational gestures is related to individuals' working memory and/or mental imagery skills. We used three gesture tasks (daily activity description, story completion, and address description) to obtain spontaneous co-speech gestures from younger and older individuals (N = 60). Participants also completed the Corsi working memory task and a mental imagery task. Results showed that although the two age groups' overall gesture frequencies were similar across the three tasks, the younger adults used relatively higher proportions of representational gestures than the older adults only in the address description task. Regardless of age, the mental imagery but not working memory score was associated with the use of representational gestures only in this task. However, the use of spatial words in the address description task did not differ between the two age groups. The mental imagery or working memory scores did not associate with the spatial word use. These findings suggest that mental imagery can play a role in gesture production. Gesture and speech production might have separate timelines in terms of being affected by the ageing process, particularly for spatial content.
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    Multimodal language in bilingual and monolingual children: gesture production and speech disfluency
    (Cambridge University Press, 2023) Department of Psychology; Göksun, Tilbe; Arslan, Burcu; Faculty Member; PhD Student; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities; 47278; N/A
    Bilingual and monolingual children might have different styles of using multimodal language. This study investigates speech disfluency and gesture production of 5- and 7-year-old Turkish monolingual (N = 61) and Turkish-English bilingual children (N = 51). We examined monolinguals' Turkish narratives and bilinguals' Turkish and English narratives. Results indicated that bilinguals were more disfluent than monolinguals, particularly for silent and filled (e.g., umm) pauses. Bilinguals used silent pauses and repetitions (e.g., cat cat) more frequently in English than in Turkish. Gesture use was comparable across language and age groups, except for iconic gestures. Monolinguals produced more iconic gestures than bilinguals. Children's overall gesture frequency predicted disfluency rates only in Turkish. Different gesture types might be orchestrated in the multimodal system, contributing to narrative fluency. The use of disfluency and gesture types might provide insight into bilingual and monolingual children's language development and communication strategies. Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.
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    Gesture and speech disfluency in narrative context: disfluency rates in spontaneous, restricted, and encouraged gesture conditions
    (The Cognitive Science Society, 2022) Department of Psychology; N/A; N/A; Göksun, Tilbe; Arslan, Burcu; Avcı, Can; Faculty Member; PhD Student; Master Student; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities; Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities; 47278; N/A; N/A
    Gestures facilitate speech production by helping speakers reduce cognitive load. Studies on gesture-speech interaction mostly examined the effect of representational gestures on spatial contexts. However, abstract deictics (e.g., pointing at objects that are not visually present) might also have a role in facilitating cognitive processes. The present study investigated the effect of gestures on disfluency rates by presenting a narrative task in three conditions: spontaneous, restricted, and encouraged gesture use. We found that disfluency rates across three conditions did not significantly differ. The use of abstract deictics in the spontaneous gesture use condition was a significant predictor of disfluency rates in the gesture restricted condition. Results indicate that gestures' facilitative roles might be manifested differently depending on the context. Abstract deictics might also benefit speakers, especially in a narrative context. Studying abstract deictics can provide new insights on gesture and speech production interaction.
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    Aging, gesture production, and disfluency in speech: a comparison of younger and older adults
    (Wiley, 2022) Department of Psychology; Göksun, Tilbe; Arslan, Burcu; Faculty Member; PhD Student; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities; 47278; N/A
    Age-related changes are observed in the speech and gestures of neurotypical individuals. Older adults are more disfluent in speech and use fewer representational gestures (e.g., holding two hands close to each other to mean small), compared to younger adults. Using gestures, especially representational gestures, is common in difficult tasks to aid the conceptualization process and to facilitate lexical access. This study investigates how aging can affect gesture production and the co-occurrence between gesture and speech disfluency. We elicited speech and gesture samples from younger and older adults (N = 60) by using a painting description task that provided concrete and abstract contexts. Results indicated that albeit the two age groups revealed comparable overall speech disfluency and gesture rates, they differed in terms of how their disfluencies and gestures were distributed across specific categories. Moreover, the proportion of speech disfluencies that occur with a gesture was significantly higher for younger than older adults. However, the two age groups were comparable in terms of the proportion of gestures that were accompanied by a speech disfluency. These findings suggest that younger adults' language production system might be better at benefiting from other modalities, that is, gesture, to resolve temporary problems in speech planning. However, from a gesture perspective, it might be difficult to differentiate between gestures' self-oriented and communicative functions and understand their role in speech facilitation. Focusing on specific cases where speech disfluency and gestures co-occur and considering individual differences might bring insight into multimodal communication.