A brief self-rating scale for the assessment of individual differences in gesture perception and production

Abstract

Gesture production and perception have a strong impact on speech perception and social-communicative functioning. Consequently, we created the 'Brief Assessment of Gesture' (BAG) tool, a set of 12 subjective statements relating to gesture production and perception in everyday life. German native speakers (n. =. 220) were asked to rate each statement. Individual differences in empathy were assessed to disentangle sensitivity to gesture production and perception from general empathic/social functioning. A PCA revealed a four-factor solution, reflecting one production and one perception factor, each occurring with and without an empathy component. The current investigation yielded good psychometric results, with a high reliability and internal consistency. Our findings suggest that BAG is a straightforward and useful tool to assess individual differences in gesture production and comprehension, as well as related empathic/social functioning. As such, BAG may serve as an important instrument for research in speech comprehension, cognitive development, language learning and social-communicative functioning.