The signed mental lexicon: Effects of phonological neighborhood density, iconicity, and childhood language experience

•78 deaf ASL signers made unprimed lexical decisions to 276 signs and 293 nonsigns.•A frequency by phonological neighborhood density interaction was found.•Phonological neighbors spontaneously compete during sign recognition.•Iconicity increased errors, but not reaction time, for native signers.•Limited access to language in childhood had lasting effects on lexical access.