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PubMed1984

A vocabulary test for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Chimpanzees can communicate in American Sign Language (ASL) to independent human observers whose only source of information is the ASL signs of the chimpanzees. A vocabulary test was presented to 4 cross-fostered chimpanzees (4-6 years old). Thirty-five-millimeter color slides were projected on a screen that could be seen by the chimpanzee subject but not by the human observers. There were two observers: O1 was the questioner in the testing room with the subject; O2 was in a different room. Neither observer could see the other, or the responses of the other observer. O1 and O2 agreed in their readings of both correct and incorrect signs, and most of the signs were the correct ASL names of the slides. In order to show that the chimpanzees were naming natural language categories--that the sign DOG could refer to any dog, FLOWER to any flower, SHOE to any shoe--each test trial was a first trial in that test slides were presented only once. Analysis of errors showed that two aspects of the signs, gestural form and conceptual category, governed the distribution of errors.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Looking through phonological shape to lexical meaning: the bottleneck of non-native sign language processing.

In two studies, we find that native and non-native acquisition show different effects on sign language processing. Subjects were all born deaf and used sign language for interpersonal communication, but first acquired it at ages ranging from birth to 18. In the first study, deaf signers shadowed (simultaneously watched and reproduced) sign language narratives given in two dialects, American Sign Language (ASL) and Pidgin Sign English (PSE), in both good and poor viewing conditions. In the second study, deaf signers recalled and shadowed grammatical and ungrammatical ASL sentences. In comparison with non-native signers, natives were more accurate, comprehended better, and made different kinds of lexical changes; natives primarily changed signs in relation to sign meaning independent of the phonological characteristics of the stimulus. In contrast, non-native signers primarily changed signs in relation to the phonological characteristics of the stimulus independent of lexical and sentential meaning. Semantic lexical changes were positively correlated to processing accuracy and comprehension, whereas phonological lexical changes were negatively correlated. The effects of non-native acquisition were similar across variations in the sign dialect, viewing condition, and processing task. The results suggest that native signers process lexical structural automatically, such that they can attend to and remember lexical and sentential meaning. In contrast, non-native signers appear to allocate more attention to the task of identifying phonological shape such that they have less attention available for retrieval and memory of lexical meaning.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Two faces of sign: iconic and abstract.

In this paper, we show that the total range of the communication system of the deaf is considerably enriched but at the same time rendered more difficult to analyze, because pantomime and other spontaneous nonsign representations occur in the same mode as regular ASL signs in deaf discourse. We note that the rarification of what was originally nonsign depiction is clearly an important source of regular ASL signs. We show that criteria can be established that would distinguish the clear cases of pantomime from the regular ASL signs. Nonetheless, there remain a sizable number of regular ASL signs which, although they are neither pantomimic nor otherwise freely mimetic, still appear to retain an iconic cast. We show that very few ASL signs are actually transparent; that is, a nonsigner cannot guess the meaning of a sign in the absence of further information. On the other hand, many signs are iconic in the sence that nonsigners, when given the sign and its meaning, show considerable agreement in how the two are related. More important in terms of language and its users is the significance of iconicity for deaf signers themselves. This paper shows that while in special circumstances the deaf do play on iconic elements of certain signs for special effects, iconicity plays no observable role in the coding of signs in short-term memory. The abstract formational parameters definitely dominate. We further note that it is the abstract system and not purely iconic aspects that have determined observed historical changes in the form of ASL signs. We interpret this as indicating the deeper structural significance of the abstract formational level. Finally, we show that very widespread and productive grammatical processes, especially suited for a visual-gestural language, override the iconic aspects of signs also at the synchronic structural level.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed1975

Semantic organization in deaf and hearing subjects.

Hierarchial cluster analysis of data from the sorting of noun words was used to compare semantic structures in 63 profoundly deaf and 63 hearing adolescents. In the first study, performance differed only for a set of words referring to sounds, where deaf persons have no experience, and not for a set of common noun words and pictures. In the second study, differences between matched sets of high- and low-imaginary words were comparable for 63 deaf and 63 hearing subjects. It is concluded that deaf subjects manifested abstract hierarchical relations and were not dependent on "visual mediators" or hindered by the absence of "acoustic mediators".

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

A study of timing in a manual and a spoken language: American sign language and English.

A comparative analysis of the time variables in the production of speech and sign reveals that signers modify their global physical rate primarily by altering the time they spend articulating, whereas speakers do so by chaning the time they spend pausing. When signers increase or decrease their pause time, however little they do so, they alter the number and the length of the pauses equally, whereas speakers primarily alter the number of pauses and leave their pause durations relatively constant. An analysis of the durations of signs reveals that signs are longer at the end of sentences than within sentences and that the first occurrence of a sign is longer than the second when syntactic location is controlled (both these findings have already been reported for spoken language). The inherent duration of a sign can be accounted for almost totally by the movement characteristic; handshape, location, and number of hands in a sign are of little importance. Finally, signers retain their regular "quiet-breathing" respiratory pattern across signing rates and inhale at locations independent of syntactic importance. In this they are quite unlike speakers, who breathe at syntactic breaks.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Intelligibility and comprehension of time compressed sign language narratives.

A method of time compressing visual displays was devised to assess the effects of compression on the comprehension of American sign language (ASL). Two ASL narratives were visually presented to three groups of deaf ASL users. A compression group was presented narratives compressed to 50% of the duration of the normal rates. A no-compression group was presented narratives signed at normal rates. A pause groups was presented compressed narratives with blank pauses inserted so that the total time per narrative was equal to that of the no-compression versions. Following each narrative, subjects completed a written comprehension task. Comprehension in both compression and pause groups was significantly lower than in the no-compression group. Pauses did not significantly affect scores relative to compression. An additional group of deaf ASL users was presented an intelligibility task in which signs taken from the narratives were presented in isolation either with or without compression. The total number of signs correctly identified was significantly lower with compression. Decrements in comprehension were best explained as the result of cumulative decrements in sign intelligibility and not as the result of decrements in available processing time.

Deafness↗
PubMed1981

Sign language and autism.

Research findings and issues in teaching sign language to nonspeaking autistic children are reviewed. Data on over 100 children indicate that nearly all autistic children learn receptive and expressive signs, and many learn to combine signs. These children also exhibit marked improvement in adaptive behaviors. Speech skills are acquired by fewer children and may be developed through simultaneous speech and sign training. Possible explanations for these results are given, together with suggestions for future research and data collection. Recommended innovations include exposure to fluent signers and training in discourse and code-switching. Different sign language teaching methods need to be investigated more fully, including emphasis on training sign language within the children's total environment and with greater staff and parental participation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Positive practice overcorrection combined with additional procedures to teach signed words to an autistic child.

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of using positive practice overcorrection in combination with other techniques to teach two manual signs ("milk" and "cookie") to an autistic boy. This boy had a great deal of difficulty in forming any type of discrimination and often became confused in learning the most simple simultaneous discrimination. Intervention primarily consisted of positive practice overcorrection in which the subject was physically guided to form a required hand sign 10 times when he responded incorrectly and was positively reinforced when he signed correctly. The study used a changing criterion within a multiple-baseline design across responses. The results indicated that overcorrection plus positive reinforcement was effective in teaching one sign (milk), however, and added contingent exercise (having to stand up and sit down 10 times for an incorrect response) was required to teach the second sign (cookie). Once the two signs were learned to a criterion level, it was a relatively easy task for the subject to respond correctly with the signs in a matching-to-sample task.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1988

Speech following sign language training in autistic children with minimal verbal language.

This study was carried out to test the main and interaction effects of training condition and pretreatment-elicited verbal imitation ability when predicting spoken language use during language training of 60 minimally verbal autistic children. Subjects were randomly assigned to Speech Alone, Sign Alone, Simultaneous Presentation of Sign and Speech, and Alternating Presentation of Sign and Speech training conditions. Speech Alone, Simultaneous Presentation, and Alternating Presentation condition facilitated more child-initiated speech during treatment than did the Sign Alone condition. Regardless of training condition, pretreatment verbal imitation ability positively predicted the size of child-initiated spoken vocabulary observed during training. Exploratory analyses indicated that, in addition to verbal imitation, pretreatment age and IQ may also predict spoken language developed during training.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1990

Short-term memory coding by deaf signers: the primary language coding hypothesis reconsidered.

Shand (Cognitive Psychology, 1982, 14, 1-12) hypothesized that strong reliance on a phonetic code by hearing individuals in short-term memory situations reflects their primary language experience. As support for this proposal, Shand reported an experiment in which deaf signers' recall of lists of printed English words was poorer when the American Sign Language translations of those words were structurally similar than when they were structurally unrelated. He interpreted this result as evidence that the deaf subjects were recoding the printed words into sign, reflecting their primary language experience. This primary language interpretation is challenged in the present article first by an experiment in which a group of hearing subjects showed a similar recall pattern on Shand's lists of words, and second by a review of the literature on short-term memory studies with deaf subjects. The literature survey reveals that whether or not deaf signers recode into sign depends on a variety of task and subject factors, and that, contrary to the primary language hypothesis, deaf signers may recode into a phonetic code in short-term recall.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Sign iconicity: single-sign receptive vocabulary skills of nonsigning hearing preschoolers.

This study examined hearing preschoolers' ability to use iconic cues to comprehend signs. Twelve nonsigning 3-year-old hearing children served as subjects. Scores obtained from oral presentations of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test--Revised (PPVT-R) were compared with the scores obtained from the manual (signed) presentations of the PPVT-R. Results suggest that even in a limited choice context, the resemblance of signs to their referents does not enable hearing children to decipher the meaning of most of the presented signs. Discussion focuses on the relevance of these findings to the selection and use of adapted assessment instruments with young hearing-impaired children.

Association Learning↗
PubMed1988

A comparison of the learnability of manual sign and Blissymbolics with nonhandicapped adults.

Although advocates exist for teaching either Blissymbolics or manual sign to language-impaired students, relatively few empirical data exist on the learnability of the two systems. The present study compared the learning of a list of 20 Blissymbols and comparable ASL signs in a controlled paired-associate (P-A) paradigm. Blissymbols were learned significantly faster than manual sign particularly in early learning trials. Results are discussed in terms of the memory requirements of the two systems and their relationship with sign/symbols learning.

Humans↗
PubMed1989

Acquisition of American Sign Language versus Amerind signs in a mentally handicapped sample.

The differential acquisition of American Sign Language versus Amerind signs was investigated in a moderately to severely mentally handicapped sample. The subjects (n = 10) were selected from a residential training facility and each had a mental age within the range 3;0-5;0 years. Twenty signs were taught to each subject, 10 American Sign Language signs and 10 Amerind signs. An Alternating Treatments Design was selected to facilitate comparison of the relative efficacy of the two sign systems across single subjects. Five signs were presented per week (2 weeks) in each sign system. Results showed that a significantly greater (p less than .001) number of Amerind as compared to American Sign Language signs were acquired during Week 1, Week 2, and across both weeks. Retention results, after 1- and 2-week delays, showed that subjects continued to reproduce significantly more Amerind than American Sign Language signs. The results were thought to be due to the more concrete and less complex nature of the Amerind system. Implications of these results for this and similar samples are discussed.

Adolescent↗