Search

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to explore the effects of iconicity and structural visual alignment between a picture-prime and a sign-target in a picture-sign matching task in American Sign Language (ASL). Half the targets were iconic signs and were presented after a) a matching visually-aligned picture (e.g., the shape and location of the hands in the sign COW align with the depiction of a cow with visible horns), b) a matching visually-nonaligned picture (e.g., the cow's horns were not clearly shown), and c) a non-matching picture (e.g., a picture of a swing instead of a cow). The other half of the targets were filler signs. Trials in the matching condition were responded to faster than those in the non-matching condition and were associated with smaller N400 amplitudes in deaf ASL signers. These effects were also observed for hearing non-signers performing the same task with spoken-English targets. Trials where the picture-prime was aligned with the sign target were responded to faster than non-aligned trials and were associated with a reduced P3 amplitude rather than a reduced N400, suggesting that picture-sign alignment facilitated the decision process, rather than lexical access. These ERP and behavioral effects of alignment were found only for the ASL signers. The results indicate that iconicity effects on sign comprehension may reflect a task-dependent strategic use of iconicity, rather than facilitation of lexical access., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

We used phonological priming and ERPs to investigate the organization of the lexicon in American Sign Language. Across go/no-go repetition detection and semantic categorization tasks, targets in related pairs that shared handshape and location elicited smaller N400s than targets in unrelated pairs, indicative of facilitated processing. Handshape-related targets also elicited smaller N400s than unrelated targets, but only in the repetition task. The location priming effect reversed direction across tasks, with slightlylargeramplitude N400s for targets in related versus unrelated pairs in the semantic task, indicative of interference. These patterns imply that handshape and location play different roles during sign recognition and that there is a hierarchical organization for the sign lexicon. Similar to interactive-activation models of word recognition, we argue for differentiation between sublexical facilitation and lexical competition. Lexical competition is primarily driven by the location parameter and is more engaged when identification of single lexico-semantic entries is required., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)