Speech-accompanying gestures have been shown to reduce cognitive load on a secondary task compared to speaking without gestures. In the current study, we investigate whether this benefit of speech-accompanying gestures is shared by speech-accompanying actions (i.e., movements that leave a lasting trace in the physical world). In two experiments, participants attempted to retain verbal and spatial information from a grid while describing a pattern while gesturing, while making the pattern, or while keeping hands still. Producing gestures reduced verbal load compared to keeping hands still when the pattern being described was visually present (Experiment 1), and this benefit was not shared by making the pattern. However, when the pattern being described was not visually present (Experiment 2), making the pattern benefited verbal load compared to keeping hands still. Neither experiment revealed a significant difference between gesture and action. Taken together, the findings suggest that moving the hands in meaningful ways can benefit verbal load.

与没有手势的说话相比，伴随语音的手势已被证明可以减少次要任务的认知负担。在当前的研究中，我们研究了语音伴随手势的这种好处是否与语音伴随动作（即在物理世界中留下持久痕迹的动作）共享。在两个实验中，参与者试图在做手势、制作图案或保持双手不动的同时描述图案时，从网格中保留语言和空间信息。当所描述的图案在视觉上存在时（实验 1），与保持双手不动相比，做出手势可以减少语言负担，而制作图案并不能分享这一好处。然而，当所描述的图案在视觉上不存在时（实验 2），与保持双手不动相比，形成这种模式有利于言语负荷。这两个实验都没有揭示手势和动作之间的显着差异。综上所述，研究结果表明，以有意义的方式移动双手可以有益于言语负荷。