Control of Lexical Inhibition in ASL and English-Reading Sentence Comprehension in Deaf and Hearing ASL UsersGoldberg, Emily and Pratt, Sheila and McNeil, Malcolm (2017) Control of Lexical Inhibition in ASL and English-Reading Sentence Comprehension in Deaf and Hearing ASL Users. Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)
AbstractBackground: Language experiences of Deaf individuals are variable and impact cognitive-linguistic functioning. Deaf individuals in the U.S. who use American Sign Language (ASL) as their primary communication method must learn to read and write in English; however they typically exhibit difficulty in doing so due to many factors. Cognitive-linguistic functions, such as inhibition and other executive attentional mechanisms, play a key role in literacy acquisition. One task that measures inhibitory functions is the Stroop task. The Stroop effect has been studied in the Deaf ASL population, however results were inconclusive and studies have focused on the single-word level only. Procedures: This study included 15 hearing non-proficient (HNP), 15 hearing proficient (HP), and 15 Deaf proficient (DP) ASL users. The participants completed an ASL single-word Stroop task, the ASL and English Reading Word Fade versions of the sentence-length Computerized Revised Token Test (CRTT), and the ASL and English Reading Word Fade Stroop versions of the CRTT. Results: No groups demonstrated a reliable Stroop effect for the single-word ASL task, but 10 participants from the DP group did show a Stroop effect on this task. The DP group was the only group to demonstrate a color word Stroop effect on the CRTT ASL Reading Word Fade Stroop task. All groups demonstrated a significant Stroop effect for the English Reading Word Fade Stroop task. The DP group demonstrated larger interference in English than the hearing groups, and produced lower Mean-CRTT scores across both languages. Language proficiency did not predict a Stroop effect for any group for either language, however, individuals that were more language proficient were faster to respond to the sentence-level stimuli than the less proficient. Conclusions: The DP group demonstrated lexical processing in both ASL and English at the sentence level, evidenced by observable Stroop effects, however the magnitude of the effects suggest reduced inhibitory control or slow lexical activation observed in the bilingual (ASL-English) population. At the single-word level, individual participant factors influenced the presence of a Stroop effect. The DP group was slower to read words in all tasks across both languages, suggesting requirement for additional processing time. Share
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