Editing Sign language (section)

=== Sign perception ===
For a native signer, sign [[Categorical perception|perception]] influences how the mind makes sense of their visual language experience. For example, a handshape may vary based on the other signs made before or after it, but these variations are arranged in perceptual categories during its development.  The mind detects handshape contrasts but groups similar handshapes together in one category.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Morford, Jill P. |author2=Staley, Joshua |author3=Burns, Brian |date=Fall 2010 |url=http://dsdj.gallaudet.edu/assets/section/section2/entry94/DSDJ_entry94.pdf |title=Seeing Signs: Language Experience and Handshape Perception |others=Videography by Jo Santiago and Brian Burns |journal=Deaf Studies Digital Journal |issue=2 |access-date=2011-12-14 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111142013/http://dsdj.gallaudet.edu/assets/section/section2/entry94/DSDJ_entry94.pdf |archive-date=2012-01-11 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kuhl | first1 = P | year = 1991 | title = Human adults and human infants show a 'perceptual magnet effect' for the prototypes of speech categories, monkeys do not | journal = Perception and Psychophysics | volume = 50 | issue = 2| pages = 93–107 | doi=10.3758/bf03212211| pmid = 1945741 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Morford | first1 = J. P. | last2 = Grieve-Smith | first2 = A. B. | last3 = MacFarlane | first3 = J. | last4 = Staley | first4 = J. | last5 = Waters | first5 = G. S. | year = 2008| title = Effects of language experience on the perception of American Sign Language | journal = Cognition | volume = 109 | issue = 41–53| pages = 41–53 | doi=10.1016/j.cognition.2008.07.016| pmid = 18834975 | pmc = 2639215 }}</ref> Different handshapes are stored in other categories.  The mind ignores some of the similarities between different perceptual categories, at the same time preserving the visual information within each perceptual category of handshape variation.