Sequential letter and word recognition in deaf and hearing subjects

To examine the processing of sequentially presented letters of familiar and nonsense words, especially among Ss of vastly differing experience on sequential tasks, three groups of Ss were tested on letters of words spelled sequentially on an alphanumeric display and on letters of words fingerspelled. These were a deaf group (N=33) with little or no hearing and who varied in their fingerspelling ability; a staff group (N=12) who taught fingerspelling and were highly proficient; and a hearing group (N=19). Of principal interest was the finding that the hearing Ss did better on nonsense letter recognition, while the deaf group did better on word recognition. Word length was important except to the staff Ss on fingerspelled words, which also suggests that concentration on fingerspelling proficiency forces attention to the whole word and not its component letters. Hearing Ss, who are the group faced with an unfamiliar task, seemed to attend to each letter and hence had more difficulty with recognition of the longer unit.     

Deaf and hearing children: a comparison of peripheral vision development

This study investigated peripheral vision (at least 30° eccentric to fixation) development in profoundly deaf children without cochlear implantation, and compared this to age-matched hearing controls as well as to deaf and hearing adult data. Deaf and hearing children between the ages of 5 and 15 years were assessed using a new, specifically paediatric designed method of static perimetry. The deaf group (N = 25) were 14 females and 11 males, mean age 9.92 years (range 5-15 years). The hearing group (N = 64) were 34 females, 30 males, mean age 9.13 years (range 5-15 years). All participants had good visual acuity in both eyes (< 0.200 LogMAR). Accuracy of detection and reaction time to briefly presented LED stimuli of three light intensities, at eccentricities between 30° and 85° were measured while fixation was maintained to a central target. The study found reduced peripheral vision in deaf children between 5 and 10 years of age. Deaf children (aged 5-10 years) showed slower reaction times to all stimuli and reduced ability to detect and accurately report dim stimuli in the far periphery. Deaf children performed equally to hearing children aged 11-12 years. Deaf adolescents aged 13-15 years demonstrated faster reaction times to all peripheral stimuli in comparison to hearing controls. Adolescent results were consistent with deaf and hearing adult performances wherein deaf adults also showed significantly faster reaction times than hearing controls. Peripheral vision performance on this task was found to reach adult-like levels of maturity in deaf and hearing children, both in reaction time and accuracy of detection at the age of 11-12 years.     

Hearing-Loss Effects on a Procedural Task Sequence

40 deaf and 40 hearing children representing 2 age groups were blindfolded and presented with 3 high-relief finger mazes of increasing complexity. It was found that young deaf children performed the most difficult task more efficiently than comparable hearing children. Contrary to previous findings, hearing children showed no advantage over deaf children on any of the three tasks as a result of their supposed greater facility with verbal conceptual mediators. The results were interpreted as supporting the idea that deaf children compensate for their auditory lack and verbal deficiency by developing problem solving skills that maximize sensitivity to other sensory modalities.     

Deaf and hearing adults' recollections of childhood and beyond

Whereas the average age of earliest reportable personal memory among adults is 3 to 3½, there is considerable individual and group variability in the age of earliest autobiographical memory. Some of the variability is thought to be attributable to differential narrative socialisation. In the present research we tested the hypothesis that by virtue of later exposure to language, individuals born deaf to hearing parents will have earliest memories from later in life, relative to hearing individuals. The average age of single earliest identifiable memory for adults who are deaf and adults who are hearing did not differ. Nevertheless, adults who are deaf were found to have less dense representations of early autobiographical memories and to include in their narrative reports fewer categories of information, including visual-spatial information, relative to hearing adults. Participants' ratings of their memories on a number of dimensions were found to have low utility in predicting the content of autobiographical reports from both early and later in life (i.e., after age 10 years).     

Deaf and hearing adults' recollections of childhood and beyond

Whereas the average age of earliest reportable personal memory among adults is 3 to 3 1/2, there is considerable individual and group variability in the age of earliest autobiographical memory. Some of the variability is thought to be attributable to differential narrative socialisation. In the present research we tested the hypothesis that by virtue of later exposure to language, individuals born deaf to hearing parents will have earliest memories from later in life, relative to hearing individuals. The average age of single earliest identifiable memory for adults who are deaf and adults who are hearing did not differ. Nevertheless, adults who are deaf were found to have less dense representations of early autobiographical memories and to include in their narrative reports fewer categories of information, including visual-spatial information, relative to hearing adults. Participants' ratings of their memories on a number of dimensions were found to have low utility in predicting the content of autobiographical reports from both early and later in life (i.e., after age 10 years).     

THE USE OF THE BEHAVIOR PROBLEM CHECKLIST WITH GREEK DEAF CHILDREN IN CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH*

The Behavior Problem Checklist was completed by teachers of 127 students who attended a state supported school for the deaf in Athens, Greece. Analyses were performed which generated three, four, five, and ten factors. The biographic variables of sex and age were also included in some of the analyses to determine their effect, if any, on the factor structure. Results of the analyses were compared to analogous results for U.S. deaf children and Greek hearing children. Three factors which correspond to dimensions found in earlier research and previously labeled conduct problem, personality problem, and inadequacy-immaturity were found. Overall the Greek deaf children tended to have problem behavior patterns similar to the U.S. deaf and Greek hearing as well as other populations. It was apparent that these patterns for the Greek deaf children were largely independent of the deafness handicap and differences in cultural background.     

Prenatal Diagnosis for Inherited Deafness—What is the Potential Demand?

Genetic testing for inherited deafness is now available within some genetics centres. This study used a structured questionnaire to assess the potential uptake of prenatal diagnosis (PND) for inherited deafness, and document the opinions of deaf and hearing individuals toward PND and termination of pregnancy (TOP) for hearing status. Participants were self-selected from the whole of the UK, of whom 644 were deaf, 143 were hard of hearing or deafened, and 527 were hearing individuals who had either a deaf parent or child. The results showed that 21% of deaf, 39% of hard of hearing and deafened, and 49% of hearing participants said they would consider PND for deafness. Six percent of deaf, 11% of hard of hearing and deafened, and 16% of hearing participants said they would consider a TOP if the fetus was found to be deaf. Two percent of deaf participants said they would prefer to have deaf children and would consider a TOP if the fetus was found to be hearing.     

聋童与听力正常儿童分类能力的比较研究

本研究通过不同性质的分类实验,比较了聋童和听力正常儿童在年龄和教育程度相同或相近的前提下表现出的分类能力的差异,研究结果表明:(1)听力正常儿童的分类水平高于聋童。(2)教育程度的提高对二者的分类水平均有明显的促进作用。(3)就本实验结果看,约在13、14岁间,二者的分类水平均趋于平稳。(4)具体语词的掌握对二者的分类水平均有明显的促进作用。(5)二者对具体材料的分类均优于对抽象材料的分类。     

Handedness patterns in deaf persons

The handedness patterns of 226 deaf high-school and college students were compared to those of 210 college students with normal hearing. Both groups evidenced many more right-handed than left-handed members, as determined by responses to a hand preference questionnaire and performance on an activity test battery. There was, however, a significantly higher incidence of left-handedness among the deaf subjects than among the hearing. Moreover, the left-handed deaf students were found to be less likely to have deaf relatives, and to have been introduced to sign language later in their development than the deaf student population as a whole. These findings were interpreted as showing that age of acquisition of language was related to the development of handedness patterns, whereas auditory processing experience probably was not.     

The Matching of Facial Expressions by Deaf and Hearing Children and Their Production and Comprehension of Emotion Labels

This paper reports the results of three tasks comparing the development of the understanding of facial expressions of emotion in deaf and hearing children. Two groups of hearing and deaf children of elementary school age were tested for their ability to match photographs of facial expressions of emotion, and to produce and comprehend emotion labels for the expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise. Accuracy data showed comparable levels of performance for deaf and hearing children of the same age. Happiness and sadness were the most accurately matched expressions and the most accurately produced and comprehended labels. Anger was the least accurately matched expression and the most poorly comprehended emotion label. Disgust was the least accurately labeled expression; however, deaf children were more accurate at labeling this expression, and also at labeling fear, than hearing children. Error data revealed that children confused anger with disgust, and fear with surprise. However, the younger groups of deaf and hearing children also showed a tendency to confuse the negative expressions of anger, disgust, and fear with sadness. The results suggest that, despite possible differences in the early socialisation of emotion, deaf and hearing children share a common understanding of the emotions conveyed by distinctive facial expressions.     

Children's search for targets located within and beyond the field of view: effects of deafness and age

The localisation time of visual targets within and beyond the field of view and the relative timing of the onsets of eye and head movements were examined in deaf and hearing children of two age groups: 5-7 years and 10-12 years. Compared to their hearing peers, the deaf children showed more often a mode of eye-head coordination in which the head leads the eye. The discrepancy between the onsets of eye and head movements were greater for the younger than for the older groups. Furthermore, the deaf children took more time than the hearing children to localise the targets; especially the young deaf differed from their hearing contemporaries. These findings support the view that during development the differences in visual search between deaf and hearing children decrease. The results are discussed in the context of a distinction between representational and sensorimotor control of eye-head responses.     

聋童和正常儿童在内隐和外显记忆上的发展差异

本研究采用自行编制计算机化的加工分离程序(PDP)．旨在探讨聋童和正常儿童是否在内隐和外显记忆上存在不同的发展模式。结果显示：(1)人群和年龄对内隐记忆没有显著影响,而外显记忆存在显著的人群差异和年龄差异;(2)外显记忆的人群和年龄存在显著的交互作用,聋童随年龄增长,其外显记忆存在显著的发展,而正常儿童的外显记忆有略微的下降。本研究结果支持意识和无意识的权衡理论．并为聋童教育提供了一些启示。     

Understanding of friendship and social rules in deaf and hearing adolescents

Children who are profoundly and prelingually deaf and live in residential schools lack ready access to the general language environment and some opportunities of societial interactions. How does this affect their understanding of the social world To probe this question 60 deaf and 60 hearing children, ages 9, 13, and 17, were interviewed regarding friendship and social rules (a game rule, a school rule, driving law). Summary scores for each of the 4 areas yielded age and hearing differences. The major findings were: (1) the developmental pattern of responses was similar for deaf and hearing children; (2) deaf children lagged behind hearing children in their social understanding, most in game rules, least in friendship. The results were related to a constructivist developmental perspective and to previous research on socialization of deaf children.     

Modality effects: Do they fall on deaf ears?

The present study tests the assumption of the PAS theory of echoic memory (Greene & Crowder, 1984) that the representation of acoustic features is necessary in producing modality effects. Performance by deaf subjects was compared to hearing subjects on serial and free-recall tasks with vocalizing and non-vocalizing conditions. For the serial tasks, typical modality and acoustic similarity effects were observed with hearing subjects, and no such effects were found with deaf subjects. However, for the free-recall task, modality effects were found for both deaf and hearing subjects. It is unlikely that phonological coding resulting from gestural cues mediates the modality effect, as phonological confusion errors for deaf and hearing subjects did not correlate with the size of this effect.     

Deaf and hearing children's plural noun spelling

The present study examines deaf and hearing children's spelling of plural nouns. Severe literacy impairments are well documented in the deaf, which are believed to be a consequence of phonological awareness limitations. Fifty deaf (mean chronological age 13;10 years, mean reading age 7;5 years) and 50 reading-age-matched hearing children produced spellings of regular, semiregular, and irregular plural nouns in Experiment 1 and nonword plurals in Experiment 2. Deaf children performed reading-age appropriately on rule-based (regular and semiregular) plurals but were significantly less accurate at spelling irregular plurals. Spelling of plural nonwords and spelling error analyses revealed clear evidence for use of morphology. Deaf children used morphological generalization to a greater degree than their reading-age-matched hearing counterparts. Also, hearing children combined use of phonology and morphology to guide spelling, whereas deaf children appeared to use morphology without phonological mediation. Therefore, use of morphology in spelling can be independent of phonology and is available to the deaf despite limited experience with spoken language. Indeed, deaf children appear to be learning about morphology from the orthography. Education on more complex morphological generalization and exceptions may be highly beneficial not only for the deaf but also for other populations with phonological awareness limitations.     

Word knowledge and production of original verbal responses in deaf children.

Verbal originality scores were obtained from Onomatopoeia and Images, Form 1B, given t0 182 deaf Ss aged 10 to 19 yr. Ss who had been taught the onomatopoetic words scored higher than Ss who had not been taught the words. There was a main effect for age, with older Ss having significantly higher means than younger Ss. No significant interactions occurred.     

“MORE” is “LESS”: Sign language comprehension in deaf and hearing children

Matched groups of deaf children of deaf parents and hearing children of hearing parents were required to indicate which of two glasses contained more or less water. The deaf comprehended the meaning of the highly iconic sign “LESS” across all ages while comprehension of the noniconic sign “MORE” was a function of age. These data, reflecting a “MORE is LESS” effect, were the reverse of the findings for the hearing given speech. When given sign, the performance of the hearing was similar to that of the deaf except for the absence of an age-related increase in “MORE” accuracy. Analyses of response biases revealed differential preferences for the two groups. Results are discussed in terms of the relative iconicity of the two signs and Clark's Semantic Feature Hypotheses.     

Autobiographical narratives of deaf and hearing adults: an examination of narrative coherence and the use of internal states

To examine the impact of early linguistic experiences on later verbal report of autobiographical memory, 13 hearing adults and 13 deaf adults born to hearing parents described events that occurred before and after the age of 10 years. The contextual, temporal, and thematic coherence of the narratives was rated. The use of emotional, perceptual, mental, and physiological states was also recorded. There were differences in the coherence of the narratives and use of internal states according to the age at which the events occurred. There were no group differences in coherence, but hearing adults provided longer narratives than deaf adults. When narrative length was controlled, deaf adults included more emotional states than hearing adults. Results suggest that early unavailability of language does not impact the coherence of adults' narratives, although certain features of linguistic expression specific to ASL may result in greater saturation of emotional states references in autobiographical narratives of deaf adults.     

Memory and rehearsal characteristics of profoundly deaf children

This study examined whether a deficiency in spontaneous strategy use accounts for deaf children's verbal short-term memory performance. Various colors were presented for 3 s each, followed by a 15-s recall delay. The delay was either unfilled, or subjects were induced to rehearse or were prevented from rehearsing. Sixty-four deaf students from oral and total communication settings, 5 to 15 years of age, were tested. The spontaneous rehearsal of both deaf samples seemed to emerge later than the hearing sample's, and it was both inefficiently implemented and less effective in mediating recall than hearing children's. However, when rehearsal was prevented or was induced in all samples, the deaf recalled as well as, or better than, the hearing. Implications discussed include the need to compare both spontaneous and controlled strategy use in developmental memory studies, and the need to provide additional training for deaf children in the strategies of remembering, as opposed to the content material.     

听觉经验缺失对时距估计影响的实验研究

采用复制法,通过聋人与听力正常人时距估计的对比实验研究,结果发现听觉经验缺失对时距估计有一定的影响：（1）两类被试在2000ms和10000ms的时距估计中,再现时距的平均数表现出了显著性差异。听力正常被试倾向于低估时距,聋人被试倾向于高估时距。（2）聋人被试不同时距再现相对误差率之间不存在显著性差异;听力正常被试时距再现相对错误率在2000ms与10000ms、30000ms存在显著差异,10000ms和30000ms之间差异不显著。