Processing Orthographic Structure: Associations between Print and Fingerspelling

一个多世纪以来，教育工作者和研究人员一直试图确定失聪儿童学习阅读的深度。失聪儿童在学习阅读和书写一种他们不会说也听不到的语言方面处于独特的地位。与正常人不同，聋哑人的英语正字法有两种形式：印刷文本和手指拼写，其中每个字母都由不同的手形表示。这个项目研究了聋人读者可以利用的一种可能的途径来发展字母和声音之间的映射：美国手语（ASL）的手指拼写系统。通过识别阅读印刷品和“阅读”指法拼写之间的异同，人们可以确定如何在阅读教学中最有效地使用指法拼写。该项目的另一个目的是使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）来研究聋人阅读印刷品和拼写的大脑区域。特别令人感兴趣的是，所谓的“视觉单词形式区”是否在拼写手指时被激活，以及聋人阅读时是否使用与正常人相同的神经回路。这个项目将比较聋人、不懂美国手语的听力正常的成年人和会说美国手语和英语两种语言的听力正常的人在阅读单词时激活的大脑区域。最后，该项目的另一个平行目标是增加聋人在科学中的代表性，包括聋人研究助理，并为聋人学生提供一个无障碍的环境来获得研究经验。

For over a century educators and researchers have been trying to determine how profoundly deaf children learn to read. Deaf children are in the unique position of learning to read and write a language that they do not speak and cannot hear. Unlike people who can hear, deaf people experience English orthography in two forms: as printed text and as fingerspelling, in which each alphabetic letter is represented by a distinct hand configuration. This project investigates one possible route that deaf readers may utilize to develop mappings between letters and sounds: the fingerspelling system of American Sign Language (ASL). By identifying the similarities and differences between reading print and "reading" fingerspelling, one can identify how fingerspelling might be most effectively used in reading instruction. Another aim of the project is to use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the brain areas that support the reading of print and fingerspelling by deaf readers. Of particular interest is whether the so-called "Visual Word Form Area" is activated for fingerspelling and whether deaf readers use the same neural circuits for reading as people who can hear. This project will compare the brain areas that are activated when reading words for deaf adults, for hearing adults who do not know ASL, and for hearing people who are bilingual in ASL and English. Finally, a parallel aim of the project is to increase the representation of deaf people in science by including deaf research assistants on the project and providing an accessible environment for deaf students to gain research experience.