The Cognitive Function of Manual Activity in Learning and Problem Solving

The human hand has been held to be of crucial importance for understanding (the evolution of) human intelligence. Next to the unique morphological characteristics of the human hand (e.g., opposing thumbs relative to other digits) that allow humans to craft the environment in more flexible and sensitive ways than other animals, the use of the hands by humans is also truly unique.
Notably, humans often move their hands in signifying ways that mirror or complement the content of speech and thought. To set these unique but ubiquitous types of hand-movements apart from the hands‘ most concrete manipulations, these hand-movements are referred to as gesticulation, or gestures in short.
This dissertation is about the various ways that manual activity, such as gestures, but also actions on the environment, can support learning and problem solving.