FROM SIGN TO SCRIPT: EFFECTS OF LINGUISTIC EXPERIENCE ON PERCEPTUAL CATEGORIZATION

Edward S. Klima ； Ovid J. L. Tzeng ； Y.Y. A. Fok ； Ursula Bellugi ； David Corina ； Jeffrey G. Bettger

《Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series》 13期 (1999/04) Pp. 96-129

摘要

Three experiments were carried out to explore modification inperceptual categorization resulting from early childhood experiencein acquiring a sign language as a primary native language. Subjectsincluded two groups of Chinese children (deaf children whoselanguage was Chinese Sign Language and hearing ones whose languagewas Chinese) and two groups of American adults (deaf signers of American Sign Language and hearing speakers of English). Thestimuli were Chinese pseudocharacters, each presented either as a sequence of static fragments or as dynamic point-light displays of the trace of the character form as it is written in the air. Under each condition, the subjects were to reconstruct and draw the pseudocharacter from the manipulated stimulus. In Experiment 1, Reconstruction from Static Fragments, the deaf signing children showed an enhanced ability to reconstruct the target form, when compared to the hearing children, but only at zero inter-stimulus intervals. In Experiment 2, Reconstruction from Dynamic Point-Light Displays, both groups of Chinese children were asked to reconstruct the target from a continuous dynamic display of movement; the deaf signing children showed superior performance across the board. The third experiment showed that even without any knowledge of Chinese characters, deaf signing Americans also exhibit an enhanced ability to analyze these complex displays of movement compared to hearing English speakers. Results of these experiments highlight some of the basic properties that may be critical for perceptual transfer from one domain to another.