The present study explored the influence of iconicity on sign lexical retrieval and whether it is modulated by the task at hand. Lexical frequency was also manipulated to have an index of lexical processing during sign production. Behavioural and electrophysiological measures (ERPs) were collected from 22 Deaf bimodal bilinguals while performing a picture naming task in Catalan Sign Language (Llengua de Signes Catalana, LSC) and a word-to-sign translation task (Spanish written-words to LSC). Iconicity effects were observed in the picture naming task, but not in the word-to-sign translation task, both behaviourally and at the ERP level. In contrast, frequency effects were observed in the two tasks, with ERP effects appearing earlier in the word-to-sign translation than in the picture naming task. These results support the idea that iconicity in sign language is not pervasive but modulated by task demands. As discussed, iconicity effects in sign language would be emphasised when naming pictures because sign lexical representations in this task are retrieved via semantic-to-phonological links. Conversely, attenuated iconicity effects when translating words might result from sign lexical representations being directly accessed from the lexical representations of the word.

In the past years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people learning sign languages. For hearing second language (L2) signers, acquiring a sign language involves acquiring a new language in a different modality. Exploring how L2 sign perception is accomplished and how newly learned categories are created is the aim of the present study. In particular, we investigated handshape perception by means of two tasks, identification and discrimination. In two experiments, we compared groups of hearing L2 signers and groups with different knowledge of sign language. Experiment 1 explored three groups of children—hearing L2 signers, deaf signers, and hearing nonsigners. All groups obtained similar results in both identification and discrimination tasks regardless of sign language experience. In Experiment 2, two groups of adults—Catalan sign language learners (LSC) and nonsigners—perceived handshapes that could be permissible (either as a sign or as a gesture) or not. Both groups obtained similar results in both tasks and performed significantly different perceiving handshapes depending on their permissibility. The results obtained here suggest that sign language experience is not a determinant factor in handshape perception and support other hypotheses considering gesture experience.

To investigate cross-linguistic interactions in bimodal bilingual production, behavioural and electrophysiological measures (ERPs) were recorded from 24 deaf bimodal bilinguals while naming pictures in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). Two tasks were employed, a picture-word interference and a picture-picture interference task. Cross-linguistic effects were explored via distractors that were either semantically related to the target picture, to the phonology/orthography of the Spanish name of the target picture, or were unrelated. No semantic effects were observed in sign latencies, but ERPs differed between semantically related and unrelated distractors. For the form-related manipulation, a facilitation effect was observed both behaviourally and at the ERP level. Importantly, these effects were not influenced by the type of distractor (word/picture) presented providing the first piece of evidence that deaf bimodal bilinguals are sensitive to oral language in sign production. Implications for models of cross-linguistic interactions in bimodal bilinguals are discussed.

The aim of the present study was to explore cross-linguistic interactions in language production when the language to be produced and the non-intended language are from different modalities. Concretely, we tested whether Deaf bimodal bilinguals are sensitive to oral language influences when they sign. To that end, 25 Deaf Catalan Sign Language (LSC)-Spanish bilinguals named pictures in LSC while ignoring either written distractor words in Spanish (picture-word interference) or distractor pictures (picture-picture interference). Cross-linguistic interactions were explored by means of behavioural and electrophysiological measures from three categories of distractors: semantically related, phonologically related in the oral language or unrelated to the target picture. No semantic effects were observed in sign latencies, but ERPs differed between semantically related and unrelated distractors. Considering the phonological manipulation, phono-translation facilitation was observed both behaviourally and at the ERPs level. Importantly, these effects were not determined by the modality in which distractors were presented. The present results reveal that oral language interacts with sign language production, even when there is no explicit presence of the oral language in the task. Implications for models of cross-linguistic interactions in bilingual language production are discussed.

We investigated indexical variation as a variable that promotes second language (L2) vocabulary learning across language modalities. In three experiments, we presented Catalan Sign Language signs (Experiments 1a and 1b), pseudowords (Experiment 2), and English words (Experiment 3) to participants in three conditions that varied in the number of people who introduced these stimuli (one, three, or six people). We evaluated learning outcomes in two recall tasks: a picture-to-L2 naming task and a L2-to-L1 translation task. For the sign modality, indexical variation benefitted the immediate recall of signs in the translation task (Experiment 1a) and delayed recall