Established as a National Science Foundation Science of Learning Center in 2006, Visual Language and Visual Learning, VL2, seeks to advance understanding of the behavioral and brain mechanisms of learning.
Through collaborative research, the Center works to answer fundamental science questions about higher cognition and how humans learn, especially learning through the eyes. We investigate the effect of visual processes, visual language, and visual learning and social experiences on the development of cognition and language, reading, and literacy. With a particular focus on deaf individuals and sign language, we study learning processes in monolinguals and bilinguals across the life span in order to promote the meaningful translation of science for the benefit of education and society. Visit the main VL2 website to learn more.
Questions we ask
What role does learning through the visual medium play in building core content knowledge central to higher cognition?
What role does visual processing play in building the core linguistic representations underlying language learning, bilingualism, reading, and literacy?
What are the formal properties of visual languages, the contexts that enable learning, and the multiple pathways used to derive meaning from visual languages and print in early reading
What the eyes reveal about the brain
Signed and spoken languages are processed largely in the same brain tissue. This tissue processes not sound, but the specific rhythmic temporal patterning that underlies all language.
Early exposure to a visual language provides visual and higher cognitive processing advantages.
This exposure maintains the brain's sensitivity to the language patterns it must experience within the required developmental timeframes.
Early exposure to ASL does not confuse the child or delay spoken language. Instead, it keeps the brain's language tissue and systems 'alive' and propels the development of spoken English
Visual Sign Phonology facilitates the deaf child's development of English reading skills.
Exposure to ASL and English enhances the emergence of literacy in deaf children.
Bilingual deaf children have the identical benefits seen in children who are bilingual in other languages.