Experience with a visual-spatial language may influence certain cognitive processes (Keehner and Gathercole 2007). Spatial ability is an important cognitive skill (Linn and Petersen 1985). Some research has found that deaf signers outperform hearing nonsigners on certain spatial tasks (e.g., Emmorey, Kosslyn, and Bellugi 1993) and that hearing…

Presents a method to determine how signs in American Sign Language are recognized by signers. The method uses natural settings and avoids common artificialities found in prior work. A pilot study is described involving language research with Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins in which the method was successfully used. (SED)

Suggests that various parts of the grammar of American Sign Language--particularly its verb and pronoun system--give convincing evidence that such grammar cannot have derived from the grammars of spoken languages; rather the continuity is from cognitive activity expressed in gSigns toward linguistic organization both of the expressive material and…

Looks at patterns of conceptual encoding in American Sign Language (ASL), drawing from adults' retellings of a story. Results suggest that ASL encodes a great deal of conceptual information about motion events, significantly more than English and presumably more than most other spoken languages. (Author/VWL)

Shows that 17 kindergarten children receiving sign language instruction tested significantly higher on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test than 17 kindergartners receiving no such instruction. The study's findings confirm that simultaneously presenting words visually, kinesthetically, and orally offers an advantage to young learners. (23…

Examines two views of the relations between a bilingual's language repertoires: the lexical and the conceptual mediation hypotheses. In an experiment using cloze completions that required either simple recall or inferences, the interaction between task and cloze type indicates that different processes mediate interpretation and transliteration.…