1. For this experiment I tired to communicate with my
roommate without using hand or verbal language, which was quite difficult. The
reason I felt this task to be difficult is because we are accustomed to using
our hands when we speak, we tend to use them to emphasize our point. When trying the experiment my partner
answered his questions by making strange facial expressions to get his point
across. I tried to use my eyes, which at one point I felt as if they were
popping out; my roommate and friends were amused and weird out. After this experiment I notice how dull a
conversation would be if not for verbal or hand expressions. If it came down to
two different cultures, I feel the most advanced in terms of communication
would advance. For proper communication would lead to better strategies for
hunting, war and being able to form a complex society. I feel as if in our culture
the people who are deaf might have a hard time communicating with others that
don’t understand sign language. The thought of isolation from the world would
come to mind.
2. I wasn’t able to last the whole 15 minutes, but my
roommate managed to only use verbal communication. For me it was hard for I’m a
person that expresses himself with hand and verbal communication. The way my
roommate managed to not use his hands was because he had placed them in his
pocket, so when he had the urge to use his hands he couldn’t. The limitation I
had made my conversation seem dull as if I didn’t have emotions, for our
gestures, hand movement are a part of which we are and with them we express
ourselves how we want.
Reading body language can be a bit difficult. For everyone
is different and cant really determines a person’s mood or interests thru body
language. An example of the benefits of being able to read body language is for
instance: you’re with a group of friends and want to have a moment alone with
only one friend, what you can do is move your eyes to the direction where you
want to go meet them alone.
I think you might have misunderstood the instructions for Part A. You were not supposed to use any symbolic language (spoken, ASL, writing) and only use body language, including your hands. Essentially, this part of the discussion was a 15 minute game of charades. Your partners were not supposed to limit their communications... it isn't clear if they were doing that or not from your description. Assuming your partners were speaking normally, who do you think had control over this conversation? Could you change topics or initiate conversations?
ReplyDeleteGood observation of the deaf culture sharing the problems that would arise here for Part A. You would also find this with non-native speaking cultures.
For Part B, again, only you were supposed to limit your communication to symbolic language. Your partner was permitted to communicate normally.
Can you think of an adaptive benefit to reading body language, beyond setting up clandestine meetings? What type of information do you get from body language? Yes, non-spoken language contributes meaning and clarification, but it also allows people to verify what you are saying, kind of like a lie-detector. If your body language doesn't match the words you are saying, this tells the person that you aren't telling the truth and perhaps can't be trusted. Why would this be beneficial in an adaptive sense?
Humans do have variation in their ability to read body language, but there are specific groups of people, such as those in the autism spectrum and those who are blind, who are not able to read body language. Can you think of a situation where use the same system of body language?