ASL Perception and Production: Evidence from Eye Tracking

我们对人类语言的了解几乎都来自于对口语的研究。 然而，世界上许多语言都是手语，它们是用眼睛而不是耳朵感知的，是用手而不是舌头产生的。 在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Emmorey博士正在研究手语可以告诉我们什么关于我们独特的人类语言交流能力。 Emmorey博士的实验采用了头戴式眼动跟踪技术来研究美国手语（ASL）的感知和产生过程中的眼睛行为。与言语感知不同，眼睛注视对符号感知至关重要，并且在符号产生过程中，眼睛注视具有几种不同的语言功能。 Emmorey博士的研究解决了关于ASL中眼睛注视的语法功能的理论主张，并确定了签名者如何协调他们的眼睛运动与签名句子的语言结构。 此外，该项目还调查了哪些眼睛凝视行为必须学习，以有效地感知和产生ASL。手语的研究是必不可少的，我们的语言普遍性的理解和第二语言课程的发展，培训手语翻译，以及聋人教育计划的教师。使用眼睛凝视来标记语言结构是手语所独有的，这个项目的结果将提供深入了解语言模态如何影响语法编码的性质。 该项目还将确定第二语言学习者在手语感知和手语时必须如何改变他们的眼睛注视模式。 最后，耳聋对学生从事学术和科学职业的能力有着重大影响，该项目旨在通过支持耳聋研究人员和提供一个耳聋学生可以利用的培训环境，促进聋人参与研究。

Almost everything we know about human language comes from the study of spoken languages. However, many of the world's languages are signed languages, which are perceived with the eyes rather than the ears and are produced with the hands rather than the tongue. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Emmorey is investigating what signed languages can tell us about our uniquely human ability to communicate with language. Dr. Emmorey's experiments employ head-mounted eye tracking technology to study eye behaviors during the perception and production of American Sign Language (ASL). Unlike speech perception, eye gaze is critical to sign perception, and during sign production eye gaze serves several distinct linguistic functions. Dr. Emmorey's studies address theoretical claims regarding the grammatical functions of eye gaze in ASL and identify how signers co-ordinate their eye movements with the linguistic structure of signed sentences. In addition, the project investigates which eye gaze behaviors must be learned in order to perceive and produce ASL efficiently and effectively. The study of signed languages is essential to our understanding of language universals and to the development of second language programs that train sign language interpreters, as well as instructors for deaf education programs. The use of eye gaze to mark linguistic structure is unique to signed languages, and the results of this project will provide insight into how language modality affects the nature of grammatical encoding. The project will also identify how second language learners must alter their eye gaze patterns during both sign language perception and while signing. Finally, deafness has a substantial impact on the ability of students to gain access to academic and scientific careers, and this project aims to promote the participation of deaf people in research by supporting deaf researchers and by providing a training environment accessible to deaf students.