Automatic use of phonological codes during word recognition in deaf signers of Spanish Sign Language

Autor/a: GUTIERREZ SIGUT, Eva; VERGARA MARTÍNEZ, Marta; MARCET, Ana; PEREA, Manuel
Año: 2018
Editorial: Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign language Theory, Vol. 1 (2018) pp. 1-15
Tipo de código: ISSN
Código: 2565-1781
Soporte: Digital

Temas

Lingüística

Detalles

The poor reading skills often found in deaf readers are typically explained on the basis of underspecified print-to-sound mapping and poorer use of spoken phonology. Whilst prior research using explicit phonological tasks has shown that deaf readers can use phonological codes   when   required,   an   open   question   is   whether   congenitally deaf   readers   can automatically  use  phonological  codes  when  reading.  We  designed  a  masked sandwich priming experiment to examine whether deaf  readers  can  automatic activate phonological codes  during the early stages  of  lexical  processing. 24  deaf  participants  had  to decide  whether  a  target  stimulus was a word or not.  We also recruited a group of 24 hearing controls. Each target word was preceded by a pseudohomophone or by an orthographic control prime. Results showed faster word identification times in the pseudohomophone than  in the  control  condition  (i.e.,  masked  phonological  priming).  The  magnitude  of  this phonological   effect  was similar in  the two groups,  thus  supporting  the view that phonological codes are automatically activated during word  identification. The pattern of correlations of the phonological priming effect  with reading ability suggested that  the  amount  of  sublexical  use of phonological information might be a main contributor to reading ability for hearing but not for deaf readers.