The organization of the American Sign Language lexicon: Comparing one- and two-parameter ERP phonological priming effects across tasks

We used phonological priming and ERPs to investigate the organization of the lexicon in American Sign Language. Across go/no-go repetition detection and semantic categorization tasks, targets in related pairs that shared handshape and location elicited smaller N400s than targets in unrelated pairs, indicative of facilitated processing. Handshape-related targets also elicited smaller N400s than unrelated targets, but only in the repetition task. The location priming effect reversed direction across tasks, with slightly larger amplitude N400s for targets in related versus unrelated pairs in the semantic task, indicative of interference. These patterns imply that handshape and location play different roles during sign recognition and that there is a hierarchical organization for the sign lexicon. Similar to interactive-activation models of word recognition, we argue for differentiation between sublexical facilitation and lexical competition. Lexical competition is primarily driven by the location parameter and is more engaged when identification of single lexico-semantic entries is required.