abstractRecent work suggests that not all aspects of learning benefit from an iconicity advantage (Ortega, 2017). We present the results of an artificial sign language learning experiment testing the hypothesis that iconicity may help learners to learn mappings between forms and meanings, whilst having a negative impact on learning specific features of the form. We used a 3D camera (Microsoft Kinect) to capture participants’ gestures and quantify the accuracy with which they reproduce the target gestures in two conditions. In the iconic condition, participants were shown an artificial sign language consisting of congruent gesture–meaning pairs. In the arbitrary condition, the language consisted of non-congruent gesture–meaning pairs. We quantified the accuracy of participants’ gestures using dynamic time warping (Celebi et. al., 2013). Our results show that participants in the iconic condition learn mappings more successfully than participants in the arbitrary condition, but there is no difference in the accuracy with which participants reproduce the forms. While our work confirms that iconicity helps to establish form–meaning mappings, our study did not give conclusive evidence about the effect of iconicity on production; we suggest that iconicity may only have an impact on learning forms when these are complex.

中文翻译：

---

学习的各个方面是否都受益于象似性？动作捕捉的证据

摘要最近的工作表明，并非学习的所有方面都受益于象似性优势（Ortega，2017）。我们展示了人工手语学习实验的结果，该实验测试了象似性可以帮助学习者学习形式和意义之间的映射，同时对学习形式的特定特征产生负面影响的假设。我们使用 3D 相机 (Microsoft Kinect) 来捕捉参与者的手势并量化他们在两种情况下再现目标手势的准确性。在标志性条件下，向参与者展示了一种由一致的手势-意义对组成的人工手语。在任意条件下，语言由不一致的手势-意思对组成。我们使用动态时间扭曲（Celebi et. al., 2013）量化了参与者手势的准确性。我们的结果表明，标志性条件下的参与者比任意条件下的参与者更成功地学习映射，但参与者复制表格的准确性没有差异。虽然我们的工作证实了象似性有助于建立形式-意义映射，但我们的研究并未提供关于象似性对生产的影响的确凿证据。我们建议，当学习形式很复杂时，象似性可能只会对学习形式产生影响。我们的研究没有就象似性对生产的影响提供确凿的证据；我们建议，当学习形式很复杂时，象似性可能只会对学习形式产生影响。我们的研究没有就象似性对生产的影响提供确凿的证据；我们建议，当学习形式很复杂时，象似性可能只会对学习形式产生影响。