Using Mnemonic Explanations to Improve Sign Lexicon Learning With Children & Young Adults

One hundred two naive subjects in three age groups were trained and tested on recalling the meanings (English glosses) of 32 ASL nouns and 32 ASL verbs arranged in 32 sentences. Half the signs were highly translucent; i.e. connection between the sign’s meaning and appearance was easily perceptible. Half the sentences were presented with a mnemonic explanation; e.g. “The sign for cow shows the cow horn.” Test responses were spoken translations of the sentences seen. Subjects did significantly better on signs of high translucency and signs learned with mnemonic explanations; but contrary to expectation, the fifth graders did better than both the second and the eleventh graders.