Infant Discrimination of Gestural Classes: Perceptual Precursors of ASL Acquisition

Abstract

This research investigates the ability of 3.5-month-old hearing infants to discriminate between classes of gestures in American Sign Language (ASL). Perceptually, the classes differ in underlying movement dimensions, as reflected in adult similarity judgments (Poizner 1981 1983). Linguistically, the classes are used to mark different inflectional categories in ASL. Using a habituation-recovery paradigm, 36 infants were habituated to three tokens from one class. After reaching criterion, infants were presented with two new tokens: one a new member of the habituation set, the other a member of the previously unseen gestural class. Infants showed greater recovery to the new token from the unfamiliar class than they did to the new token from the familiar class. These results demonstrate that infant abilities to distinguish between classes of gestures parallel adult perceptual abilities as reflected in similarity ratings. They also indicate that, at four months, infants possess the prerequisite ability to classify gestures based on variations in movement in ways that correspond to inflectional distinctions in ASL.

Discriminating signs: Perceptual precursors to acquiring a visual-gestural language

“…The rapid "flicking-type" motion (i.e., outward rotation of the wrists and hands) of the sign may have made it more difficult for infants to attend to changes in movement, since there was such a high degree of motion with both hands. The previous studies that have examined infants' sensitivity to ASL movement contrasts used one-handed ASL signs (Carroll & Gibson, 1986;Schley, 1991) and not twohanded signs as in the current study. Therefore, infants' sensitivity to movement contrasts may vary depending of the number of hands articulating the sign or alternatively, the specific twohanded sign presented, a possibility not tested in the present study.…”

“…Just as infants' acute perceptual sensitivities form the necessary building blocks to acquire a spoken language, it seems plausible that these sensitivities serve an analogous function in the acquisition of a visual-gestural language, such as ASL (Holmes & Holmes, 1980;Prinz & Prinz, 1979). There have been only a few studies that have explored this issue by examining hearing infants' ability to discriminate ASL contrasts (Carroll & Gibson, 1986;Schley, 1991). Schley (1991), for example, examined ASL-naïve hearing 3.5-month-olds' discrimination of two different types of movement contrasts in ASL.…”

“…There have been only a few studies that have explored this issue by examining hearing infants' ability to discriminate ASL contrasts (Carroll & Gibson, 1986;Schley, 1991). Schley (1991), for example, examined ASL-naïve hearing 3.5-month-olds' discrimination of two different types of movement contrasts in ASL. Infants were habituated to one particular type of movement (e.g., cyclicity) and tested with signs that had a different type of movement (e.g., direction).…”

Sensitivity to Visual Prosodic Cues in Signers and Nonsigners

“…Launer (1982), Meier (1982), Masataka (2000), and Meier, Pizer, and Shaw (2008) have discussed IDS, but as yet no research has been carried out concerning the prosodic bootstrapping of sign languages. Yet, we know that hearing infants are sensitive to and discriminate among movements in ASL (e.g., Baker, Michnick-Golinkoff, and Petitto, 2006;Carroll and Gibson, 1986;Schley, 1991). One key aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis that spoken and signed language share a common linguistic mechanism.…”

Signed and Spoken Language: A Unique Underlying System?

“…In two studies on ASL by Carroll and Gibson (1986) and Schley (1991), it is shown that at four months, hearing infants possess certain prerequisite perceptual abilities that are necessary to acquire a sign language. Carroll and Gibson tested infants by means of a habituation-recovery method on near minimal pairs of signs.…”