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Full-Text Articles in Cognitive Psychology

Visual Perception In Hearing Sign Language Users, Jessica M. Lammert Jul 2021

Visual Perception In Hearing Sign Language Users, Jessica M. Lammert

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Deaf signers exhibit superior visual perception compared to hearing controls in several domains, including the perception of faces and peripheral motion. These visual enhancements are thought to compensate for an absence of auditory input. However, it is also possible that they reflect experience using a visual-manual language, where signers must process complex moving hand signs and facial cues simultaneously. Thus, the current study sought to isolate the effects of sign language experience by examining how visual perception is altered as a function of American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency in hearing individuals. Hearing signers completed an online test of ASL proficiency …


The Effects Of Linguistic Labels On Object Categorization And Perception, Xuan Pan Apr 2019

The Effects Of Linguistic Labels On Object Categorization And Perception, Xuan Pan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The linguistic relativity hypothesis (Whorf, 1956) claims that speakers of different languages perceive and conceptualize the world differently. Language-thought interaction is likely to be more complex in bilinguals because they have two languages that could influence their cognitive and perceptual processes.Lupyan’s (2012) Label-feedback Hypothesis proposes a mechanism underpinning language-thought interactions, arguingthat linguistic labels affect our conceptual and perceptual representations through top-down feedback.This thesis tested the Label-feedback Hypothesis by capitalizing on an interesting feature of Chinese. In English, most nouns do not provide linguistic clues to their categories (an exception issunflower), whereas in Chinese, some nouns provide explicit category …


Enhanced Explicit Vocabulary Learning Compared To Implicit Grammar Learning In Adults, Leah Brainin, Marc Joanisse Mar 2019

Enhanced Explicit Vocabulary Learning Compared To Implicit Grammar Learning In Adults, Leah Brainin, Marc Joanisse

Western Research Forum

Compared to young children, the language learning process is much more difficult and less successful in adulthood. Little is known about how non-linguistic cognitive processes contribute to these age-dependent differences. We argue that language learning involves both explicit declarative memory processes to learn vocabulary and implicit procedural memory processes to learn grammatical patterns. In this preliminary study, we aimed to quantify the relative contribution of declarative versus procedural learning in adults via an artificial language learning task. Participants ages 18 to 29 heard novel singular and plural words associated with images of common objects. The grammar of the language consisted …


Conceptual Representation In Bilinguals: A Feature-Based Approach, Eriko Matsuki Dec 2018

Conceptual Representation In Bilinguals: A Feature-Based Approach, Eriko Matsuki

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A challenge for bilinguals is that translation equivalent words often do not convey exactly the same conceptual information. A bilingual exhibits a “semantic accent” when they comprehend or use a word in one language in a way that is influenced by knowledge of its translation equivalent. Semantic accents are well-captured by feature-based models, such as the Distributed Conceptual Feature model and the Shared (Distributed) Asymmetrical model, however, few empirical studies have used semantic features to provide direct evidence for these models. The goal of this thesis is to use a feature-based approach to identify conceptual differences in translation equivalent words …