We investigated cross-modal influences between speech and sign in hearing bimodal bilinguals, proficient in a spoken and a sign language, and its consequences on visual attention during message preparation using eye-tracking. We focused on spatial expressions in which sign languages, unlike spoken languages, have a modality-driven preference to mention grounds (big objects) prior to figures (smaller objects). We compared hearing bimodal bilinguals’ spatial expressions and visual attention in Dutch and Dutch Sign Language (N = 18) to those of their hearing non-signing (N = 20) and deaf signing peers (N = 18). In speech, hearing bimodal bilinguals expressed more ground-first descriptions and fixated grounds more than hearing non-signers, showing influence from sign. In sign, they used as many ground-first descriptions as deaf signers and fixated grounds equally often, demonstrating no influence from speech. Cross-linguistic influence of word order preference and visual attention in hearing bimodal bilinguals appears to be one-directional modulated by modality-driven differences.

我们调查了精通口语和手语的听力双峰双语者的语音和手语之间的交叉模态影响，以及它在使用眼动追踪的消息准备过程中对视觉注意力的影响。我们专注于空间表达，其中手语与口语不同，有一种情态驱动的偏好，先于图形（较小的物体）提及地面（大物体）。我们将荷兰语和荷兰手语 (N = 18) 的听力双峰双语者的空间表达和视觉注意力与他们的听力非手语 ( N = 20) 和聋哑手语同龄人 ( N= 18). 在言语中，听力双峰双语者比听力非手语者表达更多的地面优先描述和固定地面，显示出手语的影响。在手语中，他们使用与聋人手语者一样多的地面优先描述，并且同样频繁地使用固定地面，表明没有受到言语的影响。听力双峰双语者的词序偏好和视觉注意力的跨语言影响似乎是由模态驱动的差异单向调制的。