Eva Gutiérrez

Lexical access in American Sign Language: An ERP investigation of effects of semantics and phonology

That language forms (phonology) are arbitrarily related to their meanings (semantics) is often considered a basic property of human languages. Naturally occurring sign languages, however, often appear to conflate form and meaning. In this paper we examine whether this close coupling has processing consequences for lexical access. We examine the electrophysiological correlates of on-line sentence processing in an attempt to clarify the time-course of lexical access in American Sign Language. EEG was recorded while 17 native signers watched ASL sentences for comprehension. Participants were presented with sentences in which semantic expectancy and phonological form were systematically manipulated to create four types of violations. These four conditions of interest are contrasted to a baseline sentence with a preferred semantic ending. Two different effects were observed in early time windows. Evidence for an early effect of semantic pre-activation of plausible candidates (150-250 ms) was found, followed by a negativity associated with lexical selection (350-450 ms) for only phonologically related (-S, +P) and for only semantically related (+S, -P) signs. These findings provide evidence for a novel mapping of signal form and meaning that may be a unique signature of sign language. In the 450 to 600 ms window, all conditions showed an increased N400 with respect to the expected ending, suggesting greater difficulty in semantic integration with the established context. Overall, these findings provide important insights into the on-line processing of visual-manual language.

Electrophysiological evidence for phonological priming in Spanish Sign Language lexical access

Interactive activation models of lexical access assume that the presentation of a given word activates not only its lexical representation but also those corresponding to words similar in form. Current theories are based on data from oral and written languages, and therefore signed languages represent a special challenge for existing theories of word recognition and lexical access since they allow us to question what the genuine fundamentals of human language are and what might be modality-specific adaptation. The aim of the present study is to determine the electrophysiological correlates and time course of phonological processing of Spanish Sign Language (LSE). Ten deaf native LSE signers and ten deaf non-native but highly proficient LSE signers participated in the experiment. We used the ERP methodology and form-based priming in the context of a delayed lexical decision task, manipulating phonological overlap (i.e. related prime-target pairs shared either handshape or location parameters). Results showed that both parameters under study modulated brain responses to the stimuli in different time windows. Phonological priming of location resulted in a higher amplitude of the N400 component (300-500 ms window) for signs but not for non-signs. This effect may be explained in terms of initial competition among candidates. Moreover, the fact that a higher amplitude N400 for related pairs was found for signs but not for non-signs points to an effect at the lexical level. Handshape overlap produced a later effect (600-800 ms window). In this window, a more negative-going wave for the related condition than for the unrelated condition was found for non-signs in the native signers group. The findings are discussed in relation to current models of lexical access and word recognition. Finally, differences between native and non-native signers point to a less efficient use of phonological information among the non-native signers.

Language distance and non-native syntactic processing: Evidence from event-related potentials

In this study, we explore native and non-native syntactic processing, paying special attention to the language distance factor. To this end, we compared how native speakers of Basque and highly proficient non-native speakers of Basque who are native speakers of Spanish process certain core aspects of Basque syntax. Our results suggest that differences in native versus non-native language processing strongly correlate with language distance: native/non-native processing differences obtain if a syntactic parameter of the non-native grammar diverges from the native grammar. Otherwise, non-native processing will approximate native processing as levels of proficiency increase. We focus on three syntactic parameters: (i) the head parameter, (ii) argument alignment (ergative/accusative), and (iii) verb agreement. The first two diverge in Basque and Spanish, but the third is the same in both languages. Our results reveal that native and non-native processing differs for the diverging syntactic parameters, but not for the convergent one. These findings indicate that language distance has a significant impact in non-native language processing.

The role of syllables in sign language production

The aim of the present study was to investigate the functional role of syllables in sign language and how the different phonological combinations influence sign production. Moreover, the influence of age of acquisition was evaluated. Deaf signers (native and non-native) of Catalan Signed Language (LSC) were asked in a picture-sign interference task to sign picture names while ignoring distractor-signs with which they shared two phonological parameters (out of three of the main sign parameters: Location, Movement, and Handshape). The results revealed a different impact of the three phonological combinations. While no effect was observed for the phonological combination Handshape-Location, the combination Handshape-Movement slowed down signing latencies, but only in the non-native group. A facilitatory effect was observed for both groups when pictures and distractors shared Location-Movement. Importantly, linguistic models have considered this phonological combination to be a privileged unit in the composition of signs, as syllables are in spoken languages. Thus, our results support the functional role of syllable units during phonological articulation in sign language production.

Influencia de la frecuencia de las letras en el efecto de facilitación por transposición de letras

A masked priming lexical decision experiment was conducted to examine the influence of letter frequency in the transposed-letter similarity effect. The experiment was run in Spanish, and for the purposes of the study and the experimental manipulation, the consonants with highest and lowest frequency of appearance were involved in the transpositions. The nonword primes were created by transposing nonadjacent letters with similar frequencies. In all the cases it was controlled that the letters involved in the transposition were both high frequency letters or low frequency letters. A parallel procedure was followed with the control nonword primes, which were created by replacing the critical letters by other consonants with approximately the same letter shape and frequency. Results showed the expected facilitation for the transposed primes (when compared with the control primes), but only for the low frequency letter condition. When the involved letters were high-frequency letters, the facilitation effect was not reliable. Therefore, letter-frequency seems to modulate the facilitation-by-transposition effect. The implications that these results have for the models in visual word recognition are examined and discussed.

¿Es la forma de la mano una unidad de acceso a la Lengua de Signos Española: LSE?

espanolLas lenguas de signos presentan una oportunidad excelente para investigar los mecanismos psicologicos implicados en el acceso lexico cuando el lenguaje se expresa en una modalidad diferente, permitiendo aislar los procesos comunes a todas las lenguas de aquellos derivados del uso de la modalidad visual-gestual. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo investigar el papel de la configuracion de la mano, uno de los parametros fonologicos de la lengua de signos, sobre el procesamiento en tiempo real de la lengua de signos espanola (LSE). Para ello se llevo a cabo un experimento usando la tarea de signado en el que se manipularon la frecuencia lexica y configuracion de la mano, pudiendo ser esta ultima comun o poco comun. Los resultados mostraron el efecto esperado de frecuencia lexica asi como una interaccion de esta con la configuracion de la mano. Mientras que no se encontraron diferencias para los signos de alta frecuencia lexica en funcion de la configuracion de la mano; para los signos de baja frecuencia lexica se hallo un efecto facilitador, siendo los signos con configuraciones comunes reconocidos con mayor rapidez y numero de aciertos que los signos realizados con configuraciones poco comunes. Estos resultados suponen, en primer lugar, la replicacion de un efecto tradicionalmente encontrado para las lenguas orales, el efecto de frecuencia lexica. Por otro lado, los datos indican la existencia de un procesamiento sublexico en la lengua de signos y sugieren la importancia de la configuracion de la mano en dicho procesamiento. EnglishSign languages provide an excellent opportunity to explore the psychological mechanisms required to decode the linguistic signal when language is expressed in another modality. Comparison of spoken and sign languages allows us to examine whether these mechanisms are shared by all human languages or, rather, arise in response to the modality in which the language is expressed. This paper examines whether handshape, one of the main phonological parameters of sign languages, affects on-line recognition of signs in Spanish Sign Language - Lengua de Signos Espanola: LSE. In order to explore this question, an experiment using a signing task was carried out. Lexical frequency and handshape frequency (common or uncommon) were the independent variables. Results include the lexical frequency effect commonly found in spoken languages, as well as an interaction of lexical frequency with handshape. No differences were found for high frequency signs, whereas for low frequency signs there were a facilitatory effect: low frequency signs with a common handshape were recognized faster and more accurately than low frequency signs with an uncommon handshape. Taken together, several important results emerge from these data. Firstly, there is the replication of the lexical frequency effect commonly reported in spoken languages. The experiment has also indicated that the lexical and sublexical phonological parameters of signs are important in sign recognition, as both sign familiarity and handshape frequency were found to be determinants of the speed and accuracy of sign recognition