title: The link between form and meaning in British sign language: effects of iconicity for phonological decisions.
abstract: Signed languages exploit the visual/gestural modality to create iconic expression across a wide range of basic conceptual structures in which the phonetic resources of the language are built up into an analogue of a mental image (Taub, 2001). Previously, we demonstrated a processing advantage when iconic properties of signs were made salient in a corresponding picture during a picture and sign matching task (Thompson, Vinson, & Vigliocco, 2009). The current study investigates the extent of iconicity effects with a phonological decision task (does the sign involve straight or curved fingers?) in which the meaning of the sign is irrelevant. The results show that iconicity is a significant predictor of response latencies and accuracy, with more iconic signs leading to slower responses and more errors. We conclude that meaning is activated automatically for highly iconic properties of a sign, and this leads to interference in making form-based decisions. Thus, the current study extends previous work by demonstrating that iconicity effects permeate the entire language system, arising automatically even when access to meaning is not needed.
authors.affiliation: Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre, Department of Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom. robin.thompson@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Robin L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Vinson
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vigliocco
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D003638:Deafness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010700:Phonetics; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012813:Sign Language; D055815:Young Adult