Narrative recall and comprehension are important lifelong skills. While gesturing may improve recall by alleviating cognitive load, it may be differentially beneficial, depending on task and individual characteristics. While research on gesture’s effects on a variety of task modalities is burgeoning, effects on recall of narratives read aloud are under-examined. Further, emotional valence and individual differences in verbal memory may affect recall, through effects on task difficulty. If gesturing lightens cognitive load, it may be more beneficial for harder tasks, namely for narratives lacking emotional content and for individuals with poorer verbal memory. Across two studies, impacts of gesture production, emotional valence, and individual differences on narrative recall were evaluated. In Study 1, participants (N = 100) read aloud three emotive narratives (positive, negative, neutral) while either instructed to gesture or receiving no gesture instructions. Gesture production hindered recall, particularly for those with higher verbal memory. Emotion benefited recall, with enhanced recall of the negative narrative and impaired recall for the neutral narrative. In Study 2, following a measure of individual propensity to gesture, participants (N = 98) similarly read aloud three emotive narratives. Instructions to gesture hindered recall for participants with a lower propensity to gesture, and emotional narratives again saw enhanced recall relative to the neutral narrative. Propensity to gesture and verbal memory were positively associated with narrative comprehension. Results suggest instructions to produce gestures may for some individuals hinder recall for self-guided learners when studying written texts, while emotional content benefits recall.

叙事回忆和理解是重要的终生技能。虽然手势可以通过减轻认知负荷来提高记忆力，但根据任务和个人特征，它的益处可能有所不同。虽然关于手势对各种任务模式的影响的研究正在蓬勃发展，但对大声朗读的叙述的回忆的影响尚未得到充分研究。此外，情绪效价和言语记忆的个体差异可能会通过影响任务难度来影响回忆。如果手势减轻了认知负担，那么它可能对更困难的任务更有利，即缺乏情感内容的叙述和语言记忆较差的人。在两项研究中，评估了手势产生、情绪效价和个体差异对叙事回忆的影响。在研究 1 中，参与者 ( N = 100) 大声朗读三种情感叙述（积极、消极、中立），同时要求他们做手势或不接受任何手势指令。手势的产生阻碍了回忆，特别是对于那些具有较高语言记忆力的人来说。情绪有利于回忆，增强了对负面叙述的回忆，并削弱了对中性叙述的回忆。在研究 2 中，根据对个人手势倾向的测量，参与者 ( N = 98) 同样大声朗读了三个情感叙述。手势指示阻碍了手势倾向较低的参与者的回忆，而情感叙事相对于中性叙事再次增强了回忆。手势和言语记忆的倾向与叙事理解呈正相关。结果表明，对于某些人来说，做出手势的指令可能会阻碍自主学习者在学习书面文本时的回忆，而情感内容则有利于回忆。