My work investigates the role of hand gestures in human cognition. I am interested in the relation between gesturing and concurrent processing in both speakers and listeners, children and adults.

Hand gestures are pervasive behaviors, yet they are often overlooked, perhaps because they are not as "fancy" as speech. Gestures are not
part of a formal code, and their meaning depends on the available context. However, gesture may enable speakers and listeners to
capitalize on just these properties. In particular, gesture may allow people to offload some of the cognitive effort required to produce
and comprehend complex and abstract representations, perhaps by incorporating situated and embodied representations.  This can have
effects on speakers' use of working memory, speakers' memory for events, and children's learning of mathematical concepts.

"Real inquiry is a tremendous moral transforming force. It's not just questioning and looking for a quick answer or explanation, but the process of inquiry- of questioning, of opening- opens something in the human being which has not been touched in our culture. Everybody who is human has in themselves the potential of passionate inquiry after truth, and that's the transforming force."

-Jacob Needleman