Poizner H, Bellugi U, Tweney R D
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1981 Oct;7(5):1146-59. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.7.5.1146.
Three experiments examined short-term encoding processes of deaf signers for different aspects of signs from American Sign Language. Experiment 1 compared short-term memory for lists of formationally similar signs with memory for matched lists of random signs. Just as acoustic similarity of words interferes with short-term memory or word sequences, formational similarity of signs had a marked debilitating effect on the ordered recall of sequences of signs. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of the semantic similarity of the signs on short-term memory: Semantic similarity had no significant effect on short-term ordered recall of sequences of signs. Experiment 3 studied the role that the iconic (representational) value of signs played in short-term memory. Iconicity also had no reliable effect on short-term recall. These results provide support for the position that deaf signers code signs from American Sign Language at one level in terms of linguistically significant formational parameters. The semantic and iconic information of signs, however, seems to have little effect on short-term memory.
三项实验研究了聋人手语使用者对美国手语不同方面手势的短期编码过程。实验1比较了对形式相似手势列表的短期记忆与对匹配的随机手势列表的记忆。正如单词的语音相似性会干扰单词序列的短期记忆一样，手势的形式相似性对有序回忆手势序列有显著的削弱作用。实验2评估了手势语义相似性对短期记忆的影响：语义相似性对短期有序回忆手势序列没有显著影响。实验3研究了手势的象似性（表征性）价值在短期记忆中所起的作用。象似性对短期回忆也没有可靠的影响。这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即聋人手语使用者根据语言上重要的形式参数在一个层面上对美国手语的手势进行编码。然而，手势的语义和象似信息似乎对短期记忆影响很小。
