Eye-gaze shift as a measure of sign language processing in young deaf children

项目摘要 聋人代表着一种独特的语言群体，因为他们第一次出现的时间有很大的差异 暴露在语言中。尽管众所周知，失聪的儿童无法从语言中获得语言 早年儿童在语言、识字和其他学业成绩上有延迟的风险，但到目前为止还很少 已知聋人如何处理手语，以及处理能力如何影响 词汇和其他语言技能。这一点尤其重要，因为90%以上的聋人 孩子是有听力的父母出生的，因此他们早期的语言环境非常不典型和 经常穷困潦倒的。拟议的研究将通过以下方式研究手语处理 开发一种新的范式。这种模式是对“边看边听”(LWL)的一种改编 已用于从婴儿到成年人的听力受试者的范例。LWL范式产生时间- 以更高的时间分辨率对儿童的反应进行课程测量，比其他广泛使用的方法更常见 实验任务。孩子们一边听说出其中一幅画的名字，一边看成对的图， 并且视线模式被录像并与同时语音信号相关地进行分析。除了……之外 测量精确度，LWL程序产生速度或反应时间(RT)的精确测量 这些受试者开始相对于目标单词的开头将目光转移到目标图片上。尽管 到目前为止，这一范例的既定有效性和在理解它方面的重大收获在那里提供了 没有试图评估手语处理方面的平行发展。在拟议的研究中， 这一范例将适用于美国手语(ASL)。因此，代替音频 语音信号，受试者将看到标记其中一张图片的有符号信号。然后，目光转移将被用来 使用ASL获得聋人加工效率的测量。这个项目的目标是获得 失聪儿童和成人手语实时处理的数据，这是一项不能 使用目前的实验范式获得的。具体地说，研究的目标是：1) 聋人成人和接触语言的儿童对ASL的实时加工研究 从出生(即聋人父母)开始，包括典型的发育；2)揭示可能的差异 在较晚的年龄(即，从听力正常的父母那里)获得ASL的成人和儿童的加工；以及3)到 确定加工效率与ASL技能之间的关系。这一新的范例将开始填补 在典型和非典型语言学习者如何处理ASL的知识方面存在严重差距。 了解手语在这些人群中是如何被处理的，将揭示关于 关键时期现象、视觉语言加工及其与语言加工的关系 能力和词汇发展。

Project Summary Deaf individuals represent a unique linguistic population in that there is wide variation in when they are first exposed to language. Although it is well established that deaf children without access to language from an early age are at-risk for delays in language, literacy, and other academic outcomes, as yet there is very little known about how sign language is processed in deaf individuals, and how processing ability may affect vocabulary and other linguistic skills. This is particularly important in light of the fact that over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, and thus their early linguistic environment is highly atypical and frequently impoverished. The proposed study will investigate sign language processing through development of a novel paradigm. The paradigm is an adaptation of the "looking-while-listening" (LWL) paradigm that has been used with hearing subjects from infants to adults. The LWL paradigm yields time- course measures of children's responses at higher temporal resolution than is common in other widely used experimental tasks. Children look at pairs of pictures while listening to speech naming one of the pictures, and gaze patterns are videotaped and analyzed in relation to the concurrent speech signal. In addition to measures of accuracy, the LWL procedure yields precise measures of the speed, or reaction time (RT) with which subjects initiate a shift in gaze to the target picture relative to the onset of the target word. Despite the established validity of this paradigm and significant gains in understanding it has provided, to date there has been no attempt to assess parallel developments in sign language processing. In the proposed study, this paradigm will be adapted for use with American Sign Language (ASL). Thus instead of an audio speech signal, subjects will see a signed signal labeling one of the pictures. Gaze shifts will then be used to obtain measures of processing efficiency in deaf individuals using ASL. The goal of this project is to obtain data on real-time processing of sign language by deaf children and adults, a measure that cannot be obtained using current experimental paradigms. Specifically, the objectives of the study are: 1) to investigate real-time processing of ASL by deaf adults and children who have been exposed to language from birth (i.e. from deaf parents), comprising typical development; 2) to reveal possible differences in processing in adults and children who acquire ASL at later ages (i.e., from hearing parents); and 3) to determine the relationship between processing efficiency and ASL skill. This novel paradigm will begin to fill a critical gap in knowledge about how ASL is processed by both typical and atypical language learners. Understanding how sign language is processed in these populations will reveal important insights about critical period phenomena, processing of visual language, and relationships between language processing ability and vocabulary development.