Gesture and Action Analysis with NEUROGES-ELAN

Gesture and Action Analysis with NEUROGES-ELAN

The challenge to analyse gestures that accompany speech has yielded numerous gesture coding systems that are each tailored and suitable for different research approaches. However, the question of the objectivity and reliability of the coding system often remains unaddressed.

In this seminar, we present an Efron (1941) inspired approach to the analysis of gesture and action based on the visual appearance of the movement. NEUROGES is an objective and reliable system for the analysis of speech-accompanying hand movements and gestures. Up to now, it has been applied for the analysis of hand movements and gestures in more than 500 individuals from different cultures (Germans, U.S. Americans, francophone and anglophone Canadians, Suisse, Koreans, Kenyans, and Papua New Guineans), including healthy individuals as well as individuals with brain damage and with mental illness. A recent review of 18 empirical studies using NEUROGES in combination with ELAN demonstrates a good reliability of the system. Since neuropsychological research provides evidence that some gesture types are generated in the right hemisphere independent from left-hemispheric speech production, and phenomenologically, the existence of gesture - speech mismatches has been demonstrated, NEUROGES offers the methodological approach to first analyze gestures as a means of expression per se, i.e., to analyze the mental image behind the gesture. In a second step the relation to speech can be explored.

Contents of the seminar:

• theoretical introduction to gesture and action analysis

• practical training in gesture and action coding with NEUROGES-ELAN

• practical sessions with self-experience exercises (given that there is ample empirical evidence that the execution of specific gestures improves the perception)

• presentation of recent empirical NEUROGES studies on gesture

• optional: acquisition of the NEUROGES rater certificate after successful exam

Lecturers:

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hedda Lausberg, Dr. Ingo Helmich, Dr. Zi-Hyun Kim, Ippokrates Konstantinidis (B.A)

Dates & Venue:

March, 12 – 15, 2018

German Sport University Cologne

Department of Neurology, Psychosomatic Medicine, and Psychiatry

Am Sportpark Muengersdorf 6

D-50933 Koeln, Germany

Registration deadline: February 15, 2018

Contact: c.klabunde@dshs-koeln.de

The seminar is free for students and staff of the German Sport University. As the number of participants is limited to 12, registrations will be accepted in order of arrival. Regular participation is desired.

Forthcoming seminars:

Research Methodology in Gesture and Nonverbal Interaction Studies

May, 23 – 25, 2018, Cologne, Germany