Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T12:55:32.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cross-modal translation priming and iconicity effects in deaf signers and hearing learners of American Sign Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2020

Megan Mott ,
Katherine J. Midgley ,
Phillip J. Holcomb  and
Karen Emmorey
Megan Mott
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, San Diego State University
Katherine J. Midgley
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, San Diego State University
Phillip J. Holcomb
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, San Diego State University
Karen Emmorey*
Affiliation:
School of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University
*
Address for correspondence: Dr. Karen Emmorey, E-mail: kemmorey@sdsu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study used ERPs to a) assess the neural correlates of cross-linguistic, cross-modal translation priming in hearing beginning learners of American Sign Language (ASL) and deaf highly proficient signers and b) examine whether sign iconicity modulates these priming effects. Hearing learners exhibited translation priming for ASL signs preceded by English words (greater negativity for unrelated than translation primes) later in the ERP waveform than deaf signers and exhibited earlier and greater priming for iconic than non-iconic signs. Iconicity did not modulate translation priming effects either behaviorally or in the ERPs for deaf signers (except in a 800–1000 ms time window). Because deaf signers showed early translation priming effects (beginning at 400ms-600ms), we suggest that iconicity did not facilitate lexical access, but deaf signers may have recognized sign iconicity later in processing. Overall, the results indicate that iconicity speeds lexical access for L2 sign language learners, but not for proficient signers.

Keywords

translation recognitionsign languageiconicitylanguage learning
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 23 , Issue 5 , November 2020 , pp. 1032 - 1044
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alvarez, R.P., Holcomb, P.J. and Grainger, J (2003) Accessing word meaning in two languages: An event-related brain potential study of beginning bilinguals. Brain and Language 87, 290–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baus, C, Carreiras, M and Emmorey, K (2013) When does iconicity in sign language matter? Language and Cognitive Processes 28, 261–271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Balota, DA, Yap, MJ, Cortese, MJ, Hutchison, KA, Kessler, B, Loftis, B, Neely, J.H., Nelson, DL, Simpson, GB and Treiman, R (2007) The English lexicon project. Behavior Research Methods 39, 445–459.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bosworth, R and Emmorey, K (2010) Effects of iconicity and semantic relatedness on lexical access in American Sign Language. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 36, 1573–1581.Google ScholarPubMed
Brenders, P, van Hell, JG and Dijkstra, T (2011) Word recognition in child second language learners: Evidence from cognates and false friends. Journal of experimental child psychology 109, 383–396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brysbaert, M, Warriner, AB and Kuperman, V (2014) Concreteness ratings for 40 thousand generally known English word lemmas. Behavior Research Methods 46, 904–911.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, R, Martin, P and White, T (1992) Forced choice recognition of sign in novice learners of British Sign Language. Applied Linguistics 13, 185–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capek, CM, Grossi, G, Newman, AJ, McBurney, SL, Corina, D, Roeder, B and Neville, H (2009) Brain systems mediating semantic and syntactic processing in deaf native signers: Biological invariance and modality specificity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, 8784–8789.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caselli, N, Sevcikova Sehyr, Z, Cohen-Goldberg, AM and Emmorey, K (2017) ASL-LEX: A lexical database of American Sign Language. Behavior Research Methods 49, 784–801. doi: 10.3758/s13428-016-0742-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen Pichler, D and Koulidobrova, E (2015) Acquisition of Sign Language as a Second Language. In Marschark, M and Spencer, P (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Language. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Geisser, S and Greenhouse, S (1959) On methods in the analysis of profile data. Psychometrica 24, 95–112. doi:10.1007/BF02289823Google Scholar
Grainger, J and Holcomb, PJ (2009) Watching the word go by: On the time-course of component processes in visual word recognition. Language and Linguistics Compass 3, 128–156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holcomb, P.J., Midgley, K.J., Grainger, J and Emmorey, K (2015) Tracking the time-course of ASL word processing using ERP repetition priming. Psychophysiology 52 (S1), S17.Google Scholar
Hoshino, N, Midgley, KJ, Holcomb, PJ and Grainger, J (2010) An ERP investigation of masked cross-script translation priming. Brain research 1344, 159–172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kutas, M, Neville, HJ and Holcomb, PJ (1987) A preliminary comparison of the N400 response to semantic anomalies during reading, listening and signing. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology Supplement 39, 325–330.Google ScholarPubMed
Lieberth, AK and Gamble, MEB (1991) The role of iconicity in sign language learning by hearing adults. Journal of Communication Disorders 24, 89–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacWhinney, B (1992) Transfer and competition in second language learning. In Advances in psychology (Vol. 83). North-Holland, pp. 371–390.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, J, Osterhout, L and Kim, A (2004) Neural correlates of second-language word learning: minimal instruction produces rapid change. Nature Neuroscience 7, 703–704.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Midgley, KJ, Holcomb, PJ and Grainger, J (2009a) Language effects in second language learners and proficient bilinguals investigated with event-related potentials. Journal of Neurolinguistics 22, 281–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Midgley, KJ, Holcomb, PJ and Grainger, J (2009b) Masked repetition and translation priming in second language learners: A window on the time-Course of form and meaning activation using ERPs. Psychophysiology 46, 551–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Midgley, KJ, Holcomb, PJ and Grainger, J (2011) Effects of cognate status on word comprehension in second language learners: An ERP investigation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 23, 1634–1647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreno, EM and Kutas, M (2005) Processing semantic anomalies in two languages: an electrophysiological exploration in both languages of Spanish-English bilinguals. Cognitive Brain Research 22, 205–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morett, LM (2015) Lending a hand to signed language acquisition: enactment and iconicity enhance sign recall in hearing adult American Sign Language learners. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 27, 251–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Navarrete, E, Peressotti, F, Lerose, L and Miozzo, M (2017) Activation cascading in sign production, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 43, 302–318.Google ScholarPubMed
Neville, H, Coffey, S, Lawson, D, Fischer, A, Emmorey, K and Bellugi, U (1997) Neural systems mediating American Sign Language, Brain and Language 57, 285–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ortega, G (2013) Acquisition of a signed phonological system by hearing adults: the role of sign structure and iconicity. Ph.D. thesis, University College London, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortega, G and Morgan, G (2015) The effect of iconicity in the mental lexicon of hearing non-signers and proficient signers: evidence of cross-modal priming. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 30, 574–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortega, G, Schiefner, A and Ozyurek, A (2017) Speakers’ gestures predict the meaning and perception of iconicity in signs. In proceedings of the 39th annual conference of the cognitive science society (pp. 889–894). Cognitive Science Society.Google Scholar
Ortega, G, Özyürek, A and Peeters, D (2019) Iconic gestures serve as manual cognates in hearing second language learners of a sign language: An ERP study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.Google Scholar
Pu, H, Holcomb, P.J. and Midgley, K.J. (2016) Neural changes underlying early stages of L2 vocabulary acquisition. Journal of Neurolinguistics. 40, 53–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sehyr, ZS and Emmorey, K (2019) The perceived mapping between form and meaning in American Sign Language depends on linguistic knowledge and task: Evidence from iconicity and transparency judgments. Language and Cognition 11, 208–234. doi:10.1017/langcog.2019.18CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Soskey, L, Holcomb, PJ and Midgley, KJ, (2016) Language effects in second-language learners: A longitudinal electrophysiological study of Spanish classroom learning. Brain Research. 1646, 44–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vinson, D, Thompson, RL, Skinner, R and Vigliocco, G (2015) A faster path between meaning and form? Iconicity facilitates sign recognition and production in British Sign Language. Journal of Memory & Cognition 82, 56–85.Google Scholar
Yum, Y.N., Midgley, K.J., Holcomb, P.J. and Grainger, J (2014) An ERP study on initial second language vocabulary learning. Psychophysiology 51, 364–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, MD (1988) The MRC Psycholinguistic database: machine readable dictionary, Version 2. Behavior Research Methods 20, 6–11.Google Scholar
Wu, YC and Coulson, S (2005) Meaningful gestures: Electrophysiological indices of iconic gesture comprehension. Psychophysiology 42, 654–667.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wu, YC and Coulson, S (2011) Are depictive gestures like pictures? Commonalities and differences in semantic processing. Brain and language 119, 184–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed