Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul:218:104960.
doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104960. Epub 2021 Apr 30.

The organization of the American Sign Language lexicon: Comparing one- and two-parameter ERP phonological priming effects across tasks

Gabriela Meade  1 , Brittany Lee  2 , Natasja Massa  3 , Phillip J Holcomb  3 , Katherine J Midgley  3 , Karen Emmorey  4
Affiliations

The organization of the American Sign Language lexicon: Comparing one- and two-parameter ERP phonological priming effects across tasks

Gabriela Meade et al. Brain Lang. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: ERPs; Phonological priming; Sign language; Task demands.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Example stimuli.
The ASL signs HUNGRY and COUGH share both handshape and location, but differ in movement (A), whereas the ASL signs CURIOUS and FOX share only handshape (B) and the ASL signs DEVIL and COW share only location (C).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Electrode montage.
The 15 sites included in analyses are highlighted in grey.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. Task and priming effects for all critical trials.
Grand average ERP waveforms elicited by all target signs in the related (dotted) and unrelated (solid) conditions in both the repetition detection (black) and semantic categorization (red) tasks. Each vertical tick marks 100 ms and negative is plotted up. The calibration bar marks 2 μV.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.. Two-parameter priming effects.
Grand average ERP waveforms elicited by target signs in the two-parameter condition preceded by related (dotted) and unrelated (solid) prime signs across the two tasks at representative sites Fz and Pz. Each vertical tick marks 100 ms and negative is plotted up. The calibration bar marks 2 μV. The scalp voltage maps show the distribution of the priming effects in the respective tasks in the measured N400 window (unrelated-related).
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.. Handshape priming effects.
Grand average ERP waveforms elicited by target signs in the handshape-only condition preceded by related (dotted) and unrelated (solid) prime signs across the two tasks at representative sites Fz and Pz. Each vertical tick marks 100 ms and negative is plotted up. The calibration bar marks 2 μV. The scalp voltage maps show the distribution of the priming effects in the respective tasks in the measured N400 window (unrelated-related).
Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.. Location priming effects.
Grand average ERP waveforms elicited by target signs in the location-only condition preceded by related (dotted) and unrelated (solid) prime signs across the two tasks at representative sites Fz and Pz. Each vertical tick marks 100 ms and negative is plotted up. The calibration bar marks 2 μV. The scalp voltage maps show the distribution of the priming effects in the respective tasks in the measured N400 window (unrelated-related).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Baus C, Gutiérrez E, & Carreiras M (2014). The role of syllables in sign production. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(1254), 1–7. 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01254. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baus C, Gutiérrez-Sigut E, Quer J, & Carreiras M (2008). Lexical access in Catalan Signed Language (LSC) production. Cognition, 108, 856–865. 10.1016/j.cognition.2008.05.012. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brentari D (1998). A prosodic model of sign language phonology. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
    1. Brentari D (2019). Sign language phonology. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
    1. Carreiras M, Gutiérrez-Sigut E, Baquero S, & Corina D (2008). Lexical processing in Spanish Sign Language (LSE). Journal of Memory and Language, 58(1), 100–122. 10.1016/j.jml.2007.05.004. - DOI

Publication types