The spirals are dough hooks and yes, they genuinely knead - same procedure as a stand mixer, just in slightly longer bursts. Keep it to moderate speed (up to around 5 on most machines), give the motor a breather on stiff doughs, and take the dough to the same windowpane finish you would by hand.
The attachment logic across all mixers: dough hooks = bread kneading. The flat beaters/paddle = creaming butter and sugar, cookie doughs, frostings - anything you want mixed but not aerated into foam. The balloon whisks = whipping air INTO things: cream, eggs, meringue.
Using the whisk on dough or the hook on cream are the two classic mix-ups. Match the attachment to whether you're building gluten, blending fat, or trapping air, and a hand mixer takes you a very long way.
