Keywords
lexical access
bimodal bilingualism
language coactivation
visual world paradigm
Abstract
This thesis investigated the effect of modality on lexical access. Firstly, two experiments explored lexical access in a within-language context for Spanish and for LSE. The results demonstrated, on one hand, that the nature of the linguistic input signal influences lexical access, and on the other hand, that signed lexical access is modulated by the age of acquisition (AoA) of the signed language. Secondly, we tested lexical access in cross-language, cross-modal contexts: LSE signs co-activating Spanish words and vice versa. The results showed bidirectional parallel activation between Spanish and LSE in native and second language (L2) signers (with no modulation of AoA of the sign language). Overall, the differences between native and L2 signers in signed lexical access in the within-language setting suggest that AoA of the sign language has a stronger impact on overt sign processing (when the sign is present) than it does on covert processing (when signs are co-activated through spoken words). The absence of such AoA differences in the cross-modal, cross-language setting points towards common mechanisms underlying lexical processing in native and L2 signers. In sum, this study contributes to a better understanding of language processing and bilingualism, in general, and of signed language processing and bimodal bilingualism, in particular.
References
Allopenna, P. D., Magnuson, J. S. y Tanenhaus, M. K. (1998). Tracking the Time Course of Spoken Word Recognition Using Eye Movements: Evidence for Continuous Mapping Models. Journal of Memory and Language, 38(4), 419–439. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1997.2558
Best, C. T., Mathur, G., Miranda, K. A. y Lillo-Martin, D. (2010). Effects of sign language experience on categorical perception of dynamic ASL pseudosigns. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, 72(3), 747–762. https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.3.747
Brentari, D. (1998). A Prosodic Model of Sign Language Phonology: Language. Cambridge: The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/5644.001.0001
Carreiras, M., Gutiérrez-Sigut, E., Baquero, S. y Corina, D. (2008). Lexical processing in Spanish Sign Language (LSE). Journal of Memory and Language, 58(1), 100–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.05.004
Caselli, N. K. y Cohen-Goldberg, A. M. (2014). Lexical access in sign language: a computational model. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00428
Corina, D. P. y Emmorey, K. (1993). Lexical priming in American Sign Language. Poster Presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society. Washington, D.C.
Corina, D. P. y Hildebrandt, U. C. (2002). Psycholinguistic investigations of phonological structure in ASL. En R. P. Meier, K. Cormier y D. Quinto-Pozos (Eds.), Modality and Structure in Signed and Spoken Languages (pp. 88–111). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486777.005
Dye, M. W. G. y Shih, S. (2006). Phonological priming in British Sign Language. En L. M. Goldstein, D. H. Whalen y C. T. Best (Eds.), Papers in laboratory phonology (pp. 241–264). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197211.1.241
Emmorey, K. y Corina, D. (1990). Lexical Recognition in Sign Language: Effects of Phonetic Structure and Morphology. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 71(3_suppl), 1227–1252. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1990.71.3f.1227
Emmorey, K., Corina, D. y Bellugi, U. (1995). Differential processing of topographic and referential functions of space. En K. Emmorey y J. Reilly (Eds.), Language, Gesture, and Space (pp. 43–62). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gutierrez-Sigut, E., Costello, B., Baus, C. y Carreiras, M. (2016). LSE-Sign: A lexical database for Spanish Sign Language. Behavior Research Methods, 48, 123–137. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0560-1
Gutiérrez, E., Müller, O., Baus, C. y Carreiras, M. (2012). Electrophysiological evidence for phonological priming in Spanish Sign Language lexical access. Neuropsychologia, 50(7), 1335–1346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.02.018
Mayberry, R. I. y Eichen, E. B. (1991). The long-lasting advantage of learning sign language in childhood: another look at the critical period for language acquisition. Journal of Memory and Language, 30(4), 486–512. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-596X(91)90018-F
Mayberry, R. I. y Fischer, S. D. (1989). Looking through phonological shape to lexical meaning: The bottleneck of non-native sign language processing. Memory and Cognition, 17(6), 740–754. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03202635
Mirman, D. (2017). Growth Curve Analysis and Visualization Using R. Chapman and Hall/CRC. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315373218
Morford, J. P., Grieve-Smith, A. B., MacFarlane, J., Staley, J. y Waters, G. (2008). Effects of language experience on the perception of American Sign Language. Cognition, 109(1), 41–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.07.016
Orfanidou, E., Adam, R., McQueen, J. M. y Morgan, G. (2009). Making sense of nonsense in British Sign Language (BSL): The contribution of different phonological parameters to sign recognition. Memory and Cognition, 37(3), 302–315. https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.3.302
Sandler, W. (1989). Phonological Representation of the Sign: Linearity and Nonlinearity in American Sign Language. Dordrecht: Foris. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110250473
Sandler, W. y Lillo-Martin, D. (2006). Sign Language and Linguistic Universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139163910
Stokoe, W. C. (1960). Sign Language Structure: An outline of the visual communications systems of the American Deaf. Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Papers, 8.
Villameriel, S. (2022). Lexical access in bimodal bilinguals. Sign Language and Linguistics, (July). https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.00070.vil
Villameriel, S., Costello, B., Dias, P., Giezen, M. y Carreiras, M. (2019). Language modality shapes the dynamics of word and sign recognition. Cognition, 191(May), 103979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.05.016
Villameriel, S., Costello, B., Giezen, M. y Carreiras, M. (2022). Cross-modal and cross-language activation in bilinguals reveals lexical competition even when words or signs are unheard or unseen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(36). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2203906119
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2022 Saúl Villameriel García