To talk about space, spoken languages rely on arbitrary and categorical forms (e.g., left, right). In sign languages, however, the visual-spatial modality allows for iconic encodings (motivated form-meaning mappings) of space in which form and location of the hands bear resemblance to the objects and spatial relations depicted. We assessed whether…

What supports deaf signers advantage over nonsigners on visuospatial short-term memory (STM) tasks is still a matter of debate. We compared the performance of 18 deaf Italian Sign Language (LIS) users with that of a matched group of Italian hearing nonsigners in three different tasks: two versions of the Corsi Block test, namely span forward and…

Purpose: Phonological activation during visual word recognition was studied in deaf and hearing children under two circumstances: (a) when the use of phonology was not required for task performance and might even hinder it and (b) when the use of phonology was critical for task performance. Method: Deaf children mastering written Dutch and Sign…

We present the results of an experiment on lexical recognition of human sign language signs in which the available perceptual information about handshape and hand orientation was manipulated. Stimuli were videos of signs from Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN). The videos were processed to create four conditions: (1) one in which neither…

Lexical access is concerned with how the spoken or visual input of language is projected onto the mental representations of lexical forms. To date, most theories of lexical access have been based almost exclusively on studies of spoken languages and/or orthographic representations of spoken languages. Relatively few studies have examined how…

This brief paper reports on a study of learning disabilities in students with deafness. The study attempted to first determine to what extent deficiencies in communication skills affect the screening of deaf students for learning disabilities and, second, to describe the phenomenon of learning disability in students with deafness. The research…