Research
Our research investigates the production and perception of American Sign Language and strives to understand the neural system which mediates sign language use.
WHAT IS A SIGNED LANGUAGE?
Signed languages are spontaneously-arising natural languages used by Deaf people. Throughout the world there are many different signed languages. Wherever there are communities of Deaf people, there is a signed language. The signed language used in the US and parts of Canada is known as American Sign Language or ASL.
Signed languages are not manual translations of spoken languages rather signed languages are autonomous languages. Signed languages are not simply conventionalized gestures; each sign exhibits a complex hierarchical linguistic structure. Linguistic properties of morphology, syntax , and discourse are found in signed languages.
WHY STUDY SIGNED LANGUAGES?
The study of signed language brings together knowledge of visual processing, movement control, and language processing and thus provides a rich and insightful domain of inquiry.
For example, the comparison of signed and spoken languages can help us to determine those aspects of language structure which are similar across human languages from those that result for the modality in which the language is expressed. This knowledge is not only intrinsically interesting, but is necessary in developing diagnostic measures of language processing.
The Corina Lab currently conducts research at the University of California - Davis Center for Mind and Brain and has projects at the University of Washington and Gallaudet University as well as at the National Institute on Deaf and Other Communication Disorders.
Dr. Ron Mangun to serve as Interim Dean