mental imagery and
face processing abilities
The distinct biological basis of sign language results in a unique interaction between vision and language and between action systems and language production. This project investigates the possible effects of experience with a visual-spatial language and the effects of auditory deprivation from birth on non-language visual perception and on spatial cognition. Specifically, we are addressing the following questions using behavioral methods and neuroimaging:
- How does knowing a visual-spatial language affect visual-spatial cognition?
- Do visual perspective taking abilities differ between deaf signers and hearing speakers?
- Why does short term memory span differ between speech and sign?
- Are theories of action perception and production relevant to sign language?
Funding
This research is supported by the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01 DC101977) and by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD13249).
Recent Publications
- Secora, K., & Emmorey, K. (2019). Social abilities and visual-spatial perspective-taking skill. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 24(3), 201–213.
- Sehyr, Z.S., & Emmorey, K. (2019). The perceived mapping between form and meaning in American Sign Language depends on linguistic knowledge and task: Evidence from iconicity and transparency judgments. Language and Cognition, 11, 208-234.
- Emmorey, K. (2018). Experimental approaches to studying visible meaning. Theoretical Linguistics, 44(3-4), 259-263. Click to request PDF
- Guistolisi, B., & Emmorey, K. (2018). Visual statistical learning with stimuli presented sequentially across space and time in deaf and hearing adults. Cognitive Science, 42, 3177-3190.
- Majid, A., Roberts, S.G., Cilissen, L, Emmorey, K., . . . Levinson, S. (2018). The differential encoding of perception in the world’s languages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Iverson, J., Patel, A., Nicodemus, B., & Emmorey, K. (2015). Synchronization to auditory and visual rhythms in hearing and deaf individuals. Cognition, 134, 232-244.
- Pyers, J.E., Perniss, P., & Emmorey, K. (2015). Viewpoint in the visual-spatial modality: The coordination of spatial perspective in sign languages. Spatial Cognition and Computation, 15(3), 1–28.
- Emmorey, K. (2013). The neurobiology of sign language and the mirror system hypothesis. Language and Cognition, 5(2–3), 205-210.
- Baus, C., Carreiras, M., & Emmorey, K. (2013). When does iconicity in sign language matter? Language and Cognitive Processes, 28(3), 261-71.
- Pyers, J., Shusterman, A., Senghas, A., Spelke, E., & Emmorey, K. (2010). Evidence from an emerging sign language reveals that language supports spatial cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(27), 12116-12120.
Recent Presentations
- Brozdowski, C., & Emmorey, K. (2018). Shadowing linguistic and non-linguistic body movements. Paper presented at the International Society for Gesture Studies, July, Cape Town, South Africa.
- Ries, S., Mickelsen, S., Nadalet, L., Mott, M., Midgley, K. J., Holcomb, P.J., & Emmorey, K. (2018). Pre-output language monitoring in sign production. Poster presented at the Society for the Neurobiology of Language, August, Québec City, Canada. (pdf)
- Emmorey, K., & Pyers, J. (2017). Cognitive biases in construing iconic mappings. 11th International symposium on iconicity in language and literature. April, Brighton, UK.
- Emmorey, K. (2017). What sign production can tell us about speech production. CNS Satellite symposium: Neural bases of speech production, March, San Francisco, CA.
- Emmorey, K. (2014). What sign languages reveal about the face. Invited instructor for the Summer school on “What faces can reveal about social and cognitive processes”, Bicocca University, June, Milan, Italy.