It is known that in American Sign Language (ASL) span is shorter than in English, but this discrepancy has never been systematically investigated using other pairs of signed and spoken languages. This finding is at odds with results showing that short-term memory (STM) for signs has an internal organization similar to STM for words. Moreover, some methodological questions remain open. Thus, we measured span of (leaf and matched hearing participants for Italian Sign Language (LIS) and Italian, respectively, controlling for all the possible variables that might be responsible for the discrepancy: yet, a difference in span between deaf signers and hearing speakers was found. However, the advantage of hearing subjects was removed in a visuo-spatial STM task. We attribute the source of the lower span to the internal structure of signs: indeed, unlike English (or Italian) words, signs contain both simultaneous and sequential components. Nonetheless, sign languages are fully-fledged grammatical systems, probably because the overall architecture of the grammar of signed languages reduces the STM load. Our hypothesis is that the faculty of language is dependent on STM, being however flexible enough to develop even in a relatively hostile environment. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Geraci, C., Gozzi, M., Papagno, C., Cecchetto, C. (2008). How grammar can cope with limited short-term memory: Simultaneity and seriality in sign languages. COGNITION, 106(2), 780-804 [10.1016/j.cognition.2007.04.014].

How grammar can cope with limited short-term memory: Simultaneity and seriality in sign languages

GOZZI, MARTA;PAPAGNO, COSTANZA;CECCHETTO, CARLO
2008

Abstract

It is known that in American Sign Language (ASL) span is shorter than in English, but this discrepancy has never been systematically investigated using other pairs of signed and spoken languages. This finding is at odds with results showing that short-term memory (STM) for signs has an internal organization similar to STM for words. Moreover, some methodological questions remain open. Thus, we measured span of (leaf and matched hearing participants for Italian Sign Language (LIS) and Italian, respectively, controlling for all the possible variables that might be responsible for the discrepancy: yet, a difference in span between deaf signers and hearing speakers was found. However, the advantage of hearing subjects was removed in a visuo-spatial STM task. We attribute the source of the lower span to the internal structure of signs: indeed, unlike English (or Italian) words, signs contain both simultaneous and sequential components. Nonetheless, sign languages are fully-fledged grammatical systems, probably because the overall architecture of the grammar of signed languages reduces the STM load. Our hypothesis is that the faculty of language is dependent on STM, being however flexible enough to develop even in a relatively hostile environment. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
neurolinguistics; short-term memory; sign language; visuo-spatial modality of signed languages; Italian Sign Language (LIS)
English
2008
106
2
780
804
none
Geraci, C., Gozzi, M., Papagno, C., Cecchetto, C. (2008). How grammar can cope with limited short-term memory: Simultaneity and seriality in sign languages. COGNITION, 106(2), 780-804 [10.1016/j.cognition.2007.04.014].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/453
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