KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE AND THE ABILITY OF HEARING INDIVIDUALS TO DECODE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTION

The relation between knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL) and the ability to decode facial expressions of emotion was explored in this study. Subjects were 60 college students, half of whom were intermedia te level students of ASL and half of whom had no exposure to a signed language. Subjects viewed and judged silent video segments of stimulus persons experiencing spontaneous emotional reactions representing eit her happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, or fear/surprise. Results indi cated that hearing subjects knowledgeable in ASL were generally better than hearing non-signers at identifying facial expressions of emotion , although there were variations in decoding accuracy regarding the sp ecific emotion being judged. In addition, females were more successful decoders than males. Results have implications for better understandi ng the nature of nonverbal communication in deaf and hearing individua ls.