Mapping Word to World in ASL: Evidence from a Human Simulation Paradigm.

ABSTRACT: Across languages, children map words to meaning with great efficiency, despite a seemingly unconstrained space of potential mappings. The literature on how children do this is primarily limited to spoken language. This leaves a gap in our understanding of sign language acquisition, because several of the hypothesized mechanisms that children use are visual (e.g., visual attention to the referent), and sign languages are perceived in the visual modality. Here, we used the Human Simulation Paradigm in American Sign Language (ASL) to determine potential cues to word learning. Sign-naïve adult participants viewed video clips of parent-child interactions in ASL, and at a designated point, had to guess what ASL sign the parent produced. Across two studies, we demonstrate that referential clarity

SUBMITTER: Fitch A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9365062 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature