Representational gestures are gestures that carry some form of speech content. This form of gestures is reliant on the visibility of the gestures, in other words, the listener has to be in the line of sight of the speaker for the message to be conveyed successfully. There is also a higher frequency of use of representational gestures if the speakers are able to see their listeners during communication (Alibabi et al., 2001).
What was interesting was that speakers still produced representational gestures when communicating even when they could not physically see their listeners, suggesting that representational gestures are a part of speech production. The visibility of the listener merely varies the frequency of gesture production, but does not affect gesture production. Hence, this form of gesturing has become a subconscious form of communicating ideas.
Iconic gestures are a form of representational gesture that refer to a concrete referent. For example, a kicking motion with the foot conveys the meaning of the action “to kick”. Speakers use iconic gestures to emphasize what they are talking about, as iconic gestures refers specifically to an action or object that the speaker intends to communicate.