title: Discriminating signs: perceptual precursors to acquiring a visual-gestural language.
abstract: We tested hearing 6- and 10-month-olds' ability to discriminate among three American Sign Language (ASL) parameters (location, handshape, and movement) as well as a grammatical marker (facial expression). ASL-naïve infants were habituated to a signer articulating a two-handed symmetrical sign in neutral space. During test, infants viewed novel two-handed signs that varied in only one parameter or in facial expression. Infants detected changes in the signer's facial expression and in the location of the sign but provided no evidence of detecting the changes in handshape or movement. These findings are consistent with children's production errors in ASL and reveal that infants can distinguish among some parameters of ASL more easily than others.
authors.affiliation: Cornell University, Department of Human Development, MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States. mmp26@cornell.edu
authors.forename: Makeba Parramore
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Wilbourn
authors.forename: Marianella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casasola
mesh_terms: D002663:Child Language; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D012813:Sign Language; D013028:Space Perception; D014796:Visual Perception