Patricia Siple

Remembering in signs

Abstract In a short-term memory experiment, signs of American Sign Language in list lengths of three to seven items were presented to deaf college students whose native language is American Sign Language. A comparable short-term memory experiment for words (words representing the English translation-equivalents of the signs) was presented to hearing college students. Recall was written, immediate and ordered. Overall, short-term memory mechanisms in the deaf seem to parallel those found in hearing subjects, even with the modality change. A significant number of multiple intrusion errors made by deaf subjects to signs were based on formational properties of the signs themselves, a result paralleling the phonologically based errors in experiments with hearing subjects. Our results are consistent with a theory that the signs of American Sign Language are actually coded by the deaf in terms of simultaneous formational parameters such as Hand Configuration, Place of Articulation and Movement. Evidence is given that signs are treated by the deaf as consisting of independent parameters — specific to American Sign Language — which are essentially arbitrary in terms of meaning.

Visual Constraints for Sign Language Communication

Production of the signals of any language must to some extent depend on the modality of that production. The vocal apparatus can produce only a limited range of all the sounds that a human ear can detect, and there is certainly a limit to the possible duration and sequencing of these sounds. Similarly, the production of language signals must be related to the perceptual system receiving them. A difference between two sounds must be a difference that the hearer can immediately, accurately, and automatically detect before that difference can be used to convey a distinction between two elements of a language. The production of language signals, therefore, must be constrained by the apparatus used to receive them. We would expect that sign languages of the deaf would evolve in such a way that their units would become less perceptually ambiguous. Since sign languages are received and initially processed by the visual system, we would expect that the rules for the formation of signs of a sign language would be constrained by the limits of the visual system. One of the important limits of human vision is that it is not equally acute in all parts of the field it takes in. When we focus on a point, we can see a great deal of detail in the area immediately surrounding that point, because the image of the point and area falls on the most

Memory for nonsemantic attributes of American sign language signs and english words

Two recognition memory experiments were used to study the retention of language and modality of input. A bilingual list of American Sign Language signs and English words was presented to two deaf groups, one instructed to remember mode of input, and one hearing group. A similar list of auditory and visual words was presented to two hearing groups. Test list items were in either the same or different mode. False recognition data provided evidence for semantic organization of signs in long term memory. Instructions did not affect recognition performance. Several results taken together bring about the speculation that both language and modality information are stored in the same way, that the processes used to encode items are themselves stored.

Behavioral problems in deaf children: Methodologic and theoretical considerations

Problems in methodologic and theoretical approaches to the study of behavioral problems in deaf children are discussed. The most serious and prevalent methodologic deficiencies include inaccurate definitions, poor operationalization of “deafness,” and the use of inadequate comparison groups. Many of the theories developed to explain findings in this area fail to consider individual differences among the children and/or their environments. Suggestions are presented with the goal of encouraging more exactness in methodology and the development of an electric theoretical approach to research in this area. It is argued that a valid understanding of the occurrence and “causes” of behavioral problems in this group, based on sound methodology, is essential to logical decision making and to any attempts at intervention.