Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

The role of gestures in determining the use of familiar and novel tools was explored. In the first study, participants were shown gestures for tools corresponding either to tool design, or to the physical affordances of a puzzle designed for each tool. In the second study, two additional conditions were added. In the first, gestures were used that did not correspond to tool design or the puzzle affordances. The second was a control condition in which no gestures were shown. Results indicate that the demonstration of gestures appropriate to a novel problem situation facilitate creative use of tools. Additionally, attention to tool and puzzle affordances is effective for creative tool use when no gestural input is present. However, knowledge of tool design may interfere with this creative application. Performance is further hindered by the demonstration of gestures consistent with tool design, which may prime individuals to rely on the design stance.

Extent

viii, 64 p. : ill. (some col.)

Comments

by Robert R. Freund.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010.|Includes bibliography.|Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.|by Robert R. Freund.

Identifier

FADT1927868

Format

pdf

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