Empirical Article Signed Language Working Memory Capacity of Signed Language Interpreters and Deaf Signers

This study investigated the effects of hearing status and age of signed language acquisition on signed language working memory capacity. Professional Auslan (Australian sign lan-guage)/English interpreters (hearing native signers and hear-ing nonnative signers) and deaf Auslan signers (deaf native signers and deaf nonnative signers) completed an Auslan working memory (WM) span task. The results revealed that the hearing signers (i.e., the professional interpreters) sig-nificantly outperformed the deaf signers on the Auslan WM span task. However, the results showed no significant differ-ences between the native signers and the nonnative signers in their Auslan working memory capacity. Furthermore, there was no significant interaction between hearing status and age of signed language acquisition. Additionally, the study found no significant differences between the deaf native sign-ers (adults) and the deaf nonnative signers (adults) in their Auslan working memory capacity. The findings are discussed in relation to the participants ’ memory strategies and their early language experience. The findings present challenges for WM theories. Although many deaf people use a signed language as their primary or preferred language in adulthood, they vary widely as to when they were first exposed to the language (Emmorey, 2002). Deaf children of signing deaf parents acquire a signed language as their first language from birth, in much the same way as hear-ing children of hearing parents acquire a spoken lan