Effects of sign language experience on categorical perception of dynamic ASL pseudosigns

Best, Catherine T.; Mathur, Gaurav; Miranda, Karen A.; Lillo‐Martin, Diane

doi:10.3758/app.72.3.747

Cited by 52 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…These results suggest that late-learners of signs are not as attentive to phonology during sign perception. In contrast, other studies have shown that late-learners performing categorical perception tasks (Morford, Grieve-Smith, MacFarlane, Staley, & Waters, 2008; Best, Mathur, Miranda, & Lillo-Martin, 2010) are more likely to make multiple discriminations within a category (i.e. handshape, location)—such as noticing multiple gradations of finger closure—compared to early learners who tend to discriminate more categorically—such as noticing that the fingers are either closed or open.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Real-time processing of ASL signs: Delayed first language acquisition affects organization of the mental lexicon.

Lieberman¹,

Borovsky²,

Hatrak³

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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Sign language comprehension requires visual attention to the linguistic signal and visual attention to referents in the surrounding world, whereas these processes are divided between the auditory and visual modalities for spoken language comprehension. Additionally, the age-onset of first language acquisition and the quality and quantity of linguistic input and for deaf individuals is highly heterogeneous, which is rarely the case for hearing learners of spoken languages. Little is known about how these modality and developmental factors affect real-time lexical processing. In this study, we ask how these factors impact real-time recognition of American Sign Language (ASL) signs using a novel adaptation of the visual world paradigm in deaf adults who learned sign from birth (Experiment 1), and in deaf individuals who were late-learners of ASL (Experiment 2). Results revealed that although both groups of signers demonstrated rapid, incremental processing of ASL signs, only native-signers demonstrated early and robust activation of sub-lexical features of signs during real-time recognition. Our findings suggest that the organization of the mental lexicon into units of both form and meaning is a product of infant language learning and not the sensory and motor modality through which the linguistic signal is sent and received.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Real-time processing of ASL signs: Delayed first language acquisition affects organization of the mental lexicon.

Lieberman¹,

Borovsky²,

Hatrak³

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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show abstract

“…This analysis formed the framework for almost everything that has followed in sign phonology. Since Stokoe’s time, many theoretical and empirical studies have explored the phonological parameters of signed language (Sandler 1989; Brentari 1998; Emmorey, McCullough, and Brentari 2003; Best, Mathur, Miranda, and Lillo-Martin 2010). Yet there has been little consideration given to the phonetics-phonology interface or to the relationship between sign production and sign perception.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phonetic reduction and variation in American Sign Language: A quantitative study of sign lowering

Tyrone¹,

Mauk

2012

Laboratory Phonology

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During normal sign language use, a signer’s productions will often be reduced from the citation forms of signs. This study examines a form of phonetic reduction in American Sign Language, in which signs that are located at the forehead are lowered in space. In particular, we explore the effects of signing rate and phonetic environment on the lowering of specific ASL signs and on their phonetic variation along the other two movement axes. Movement data were captured as native signers produced utterances that were controlled for phonetic environment and signing rate. We found that all signers produced lowered forms as an effect of the phonetic factors that we manipulated. In addition, several rate-induced effects occurred, which we had not predicted. Results are discussed in relation to past research on variation in sign production and in speech.

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“…One consistent finding across previous research investigating categorical perception in sign is that native signers are the least sensitive to within-category phonetic variation, while naïve participants are the most sensitive to it. Baker et al (2005), Best et al (2010), and Morford et al (2008) all found that sign-naïve participants were more likely than other participants to discriminate between two stimuli that both came from the same side of a category boundary (e.g. two different '5' handshapes).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Five studies of categorical perception in American Sign Language, ASL, have found that signers overdiscriminate; that is, they can reliably perceive differences between two tokens drawn from the same side of the category boundary (Baker, Idsardi, Golinkoff & Petitto 2005;Best, Mathur, Miranda & Lillo-Martin 2010;Emmorey, McCullough & Brentari 2003;Morford, Grieve-Smith, MacFarlane, Staley & Waters 2008;Newport 1982). But the degree to which they overdiscriminate depends upon their early language experience.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both the non-native and L2 signers showed greater within-category discrimination compared to the native signers. Finally, Best et al (2010) tested deaf native and non-native signers, along with hearing L2 and naïve participants. They also found non-native signers to make more within-category discrimination compared to the native signers, but they did not directly compare the discrimination of the native signers with that of either the hearing L2 or naïve participants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phonological similarity judgments in ASL

Hall

Ferreira²,

Mayberry³

2012

SL&L

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We created a novel paradigm to investigate phonological processing in sign and asked how age of acquisition (AoA) may affect it. Participants indicated which of two signs was more phonologically similar to a target, and estimated the strength of the resemblance with a mouse click along a continuous scale. We manipulated AoA by testing deaf native and non-native signers, and hearing L2 signers and sign-naïve participants. Consistent with previous research, judgments by the native and L2 signers reflected similarity based on shared phonological features between signs. By contrast, judgments by the non-native signers and sign-naïve participants were influenced by other (potentially visual or somatosensory) properties of signs that native and L2 signers ignored. These results suggest that early exposure to language helps a learner discern which aspects of a linguistic signal are most likely to matter for language learning, even if that language belongs to a different modality.

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Effects of sign language experience on categorical perception of dynamic ASL pseudosigns

Cited by 52 publications

References 54 publications

Real-time processing of ASL signs: Delayed first language acquisition affects organization of the mental lexicon.

Real-time processing of ASL signs: Delayed first language acquisition affects organization of the mental lexicon.

Phonetic reduction and variation in American Sign Language: A quantitative study of sign lowering

Phonological similarity judgments in ASL

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