Fellows 2024

Susan Goldin-Meadow

Professor of Developmental Psychology, University of Chicago

Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

April 2024

Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»The Mind Hidden in Our Hands«

Project outline:

Gesture is versatile in form and function. Under certain circumstances, gesture can substitute for speech, and when it does, it embodies the properties of language that children themselves bring to language learning, and underscores the resilience of language itself. Under other circumstances, gesture can form a fully integrated system with speech. When it does, it both predicts and promotes learning, and underscores the resilience of gesture in thinking. Together, these lines of research show how much of our minds is hidden in our hands. (Susan Goldin-Meadow)

Research partner:

Susan Goldin-Meadow follows the invitation of Cornelia Ebert, Professor for Linguistics/Semantics at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and Goethe Fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften. Susan’s stay is funded by the DFG Priority Programme »Visual Communication. Theoretical, Empirical, and Applied Perspectives« (ViCom).

Scholarly profile of Susan Goldin-Meadow

Susan Goldin-Meadow is the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Comparative Human Development, and the Committee on Education, at the University of Chicago. Her academic journey was influenced by a junior year at the Piagetian Institute in Geneva during her undergraduate days at Smith College. Susan completed her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction Rochel Gelman and Lila Gleitman. Throughout her career, she has served as President for various psychological and cognitive science societies and chaired the Cognitive Science Society. Susan is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Website:
Please find more Information about Susan Goldin-Meadow here.

Main areas of research:

Language development and creation, gesture’s role in communicating, thinking, and learning; research on homemade gestures of deaf children for insights into cognitive aspects that shape language

Selected publications:

(ed.) Hearing gesture: How our hands help us think, Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2003.
(ed.) The resilience of language: What gesture creation in deaf children can tell us about how all children learn language, New York: Psychology Press 2003.
(with M. A. Singer) »From children’s hands to adults’ ears: Gesture’s role in teaching and learning«, in: Developmental Psychology, Bd. 39, Nr. 3 (2003), S. 509-520.
(with P. Garber) »Gesture offers insight into problem-solving in adults and children«, in: Cognitive Science, Bd. 27 (2002), S. 817-831.

Susan Goldin-Meadow

Scholarly profile of Susan Goldin-Meadow

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