Effects of reinforced directed rehearsal on expressive sign language learning by persons with mental retardation

This study used a multielement design to compare standard training (prompting and reinforcement) with and without reinforced directed rehearsal as a correction procedure in teaching expressive sign language to 10 nonverbal students with moderate to severe mental retardation. Standard training consisted of either sequential prompting or graduated guidance and 5 students were randomly assigned to each condition. Directed rehearsal involved 10 practices of the correct sign contingent on an error or no response; praise was given during directed rehearsal for cooperation and attempted signing. A stimulus control analysis revealed that only 6 of the 10 students (3 from each standard training condition) completely discriminated the trained signs within the maximum training period of 160 trials (3 of the 4 students who failed the stimulus control test were hearing impaired; the remaining 6 who showed stimulus control were not). Using only these six students' data, we found that directed rehearsal increased: (a) accuracy (percent correct), (b) speed of learning (required fewer trials to criterion), (c) efficiency (decreased total instruction time), and (d) generalization (across trainers, objects, and settings). There were no obvious interactions between directed rehearsal and the type of prompting strategy employed. Very little agitated behavior occurred in any of the sessions, and a treatment acceptability survey indicated that 10 of 14 direct-care staff and the trainers in this study preferred corrective directed rehearsal (as used in this study) over standard training alone. The results indicate that directed rehearsal may be a valuable adjunct to sign language training with nonverbal students with mental retardation.     

"Turning back the clock" on serial-stimulus sign tracking.

Two experiments examined the effects of a negative (setback) response contingency on key pecking engendered by a changing light-intensity stimulus clock (ramp stimulus) signaling fixed-time 30-s food deliveries. The response contingency specified that responses would immediately decrease the light-intensity value, and, because food was delivered only after the highest intensity value was presented, would delay food delivery by 1 s for each response. The first experiment examined the acquisition and maintenance of responding for a group trained with the contingency in effect and for a group trained on a response-independent schedule with the ramp stimulus prior to introduction of the contingency. The first group acquired low rates of key pecking, and, after considerable exposure to the contingency, those rates were reduced to low levels. The rates of responding for the second group were reduced very rapidly (within four to five trials) after introduction of the setback contingency. For both groups, rates of responding increased for all but 1 bird when the contingency was removed. A second experiment compared the separate effects of each part of the response contingency. One group was exposed only to the stimulus setback (stimulus only), and a second group was exposed only to the delay of the reinforcer (delay only). The stimulus-only group's rates of responding were immediately reduced to moderate levels, but for most of the birds, these rates recovered quickly when the contingency was removed. The delay-only groups's rates decreased after several trials, to very low levels, and recovery of responding took several sessions once the contingency was removed. The results suggest that (a) sign-tracking behavior elicited by an added clock stimulus may be reduced rapidly and persistently when a setback contingency is imposed, and (b) the success of the contingency is due both to response-dependent stimulus change and response-dependent alterations in the frequency of food delivery. The operation of the contingency is compared with the effects of secondary reinforcement and punishment procedures.     

ACQUISITION OF SIGN LANGUAGE BY AUTISTIC CHILDREN. I: EXPRESSIVE LABELLING

There has been growing interest in teaching sign language to autistic children who have failed to develop speech. However, controlled experimentation in this area is nonexistent. In the present study, four nonverbal autistic children were taught expressive sign labels for common objects, using a training procedure that consisted of prompting, fading, and stimulus rotation. The efficacy of the procedure was demonstrated in a multiple-baseline design across objects. The results were reliable, replicable across children, and generalizable across therapists. A stimulus control analysis demonstrated that, for three of the children, correct signing was controlled solely by the visual cues associated with the presentation of a given object and was independent of the auditory cues related to the same object. These latter results are discussed with respect to the known perceptual and linguistic deficits of autistic children.     

Philosophy's Real-World Consequences for Deaf People: Thoughts on Iconicity, Sign Language and Being Deaf

The body of philosophical knowledge concerning the relations among language, the senses, and deafness, interpreted as a canon of key ideas which have found their way into folk metaphysics, constitutes one of the historically sustained conditions of the oppression of deaf people. Jonathan Rée, with his book I see a voice, makes the point that a philosophical history, grounded in a phenomenological and causal concern with philosophical thought and social life, can offer an archaeology of philosophy's contribution to the social oppression of deaf people.This article offers support for such a project while being critical of Rée's philosophical phenomenology, since it presumes, àpriori, two ideas about deafness and sign language: firstly, that deaf experience is like hearing experience but without hearing; and secondly, that the iconic qualities of sign languages are strictly superficial phenomena. Both presumptions, it is argued here, derive from the same philosophical knowledge which has linked deafness to the sense of hearing and the voice, and in doing so secured an intellectual basis for the oppression of deaf people in social life.Instead it is proposed, using examples of sign language use, that deafness as sensory experience is best understood by reference to the sense of sight; that iconicity is a central creative resource in sign language formation, maintenance and productivity; that Rée's philosophical phenomenology, as a metatheoretical critique of philosophical knowledge, proves unable to selfreflexively uncover (let alone overcome) existing presumptions in philosophy and social life; and that as a consequence that project itself risks perpetuating, within philosophy, key conditions of the oppression of deaf people.     

The response of guide dogs and pet dogs (Canis Familiaris) to cues of human referential communication (pointing and gaze)

The study raises the question of whether guide dogs and pet dogs are expected to differ in response to cues of referential communication given by their owners; especially since guide dogs grow up among sighted humans, and while living with their blind owners, they still have interactions with several sighted people. Guide dogs and pet dogs were required to respond to point, point and gaze, gaze and control cues of referential communication given by their owners. Results indicate that the two groups of dogs do not differ from each other, revealing that the visual status of the owner is not a factor in the use of cues of referential communication. Both groups of dogs have higher frequencies of performance and faster latencies for the point and the point and gaze cues as compared to gaze cue only. However, responses to control cues are below chance performance for the guide dogs, whereas the pet dogs perform at chance. The below chance performance of the guide dogs may be explained by a tendency among them to go and stand by the owner. The study indicates that both groups of dogs respond similarly in normal daily dyadic interaction with their owners and the lower comprehension of the human gaze may be a less salient cue among dogs in comparison to the pointing gesture.     

聋人手语视觉表象生成能力的实验研究

通过视觉表象判断实验,对聋手语使用者和听力正常人两类被试视觉表象生成的能力进行了比较。实验发现：与听力正常的人相比,聋手语使用者学习和记忆大写字母的时间短于听力正常的被试,并且两组被试记忆复杂字母的时间都较长;聋被试和听力正常被试采用了相同的字母表征方式。但是,习得手语的年龄对聋手语者生成表象的能力没有明显的影响。     

Driving simulator study of the comparative effectiveness of monolingual and bilingual guide signs on Chinese highways

As China has become more attractive for foreigners to travel or work, some Chinese-English bilingual guide signs have been adopted on the highways for the convenience of foreign drivers. This research examined the effectiveness of Chinese-English bilingual guide signs on highways in China for drivers with different language backgrounds. The study involved three different groups of participants: Chinese (Group C), foreigners who passed the Chinese proficiency test HSK (Group FC), and foreigners without Chinese proficiency test (Group F). A driving simulator and an eye tracker were used to obtain eye movement and driving behaviour data for both monolingual and bilingual guide sign scenes. The results showed that, for Groups C and FC, their performance in the two scenes had little difference when the number of Chinese place (destination) names on the sign was 5 or less. However, the performance of Groups C and FC in the bilingual guide sign scene was worse than that in the Chinese guide sign scene when the number of place names exceeded 5. Moreover, the participants’ performance worsened as the number of place names increased for all different groups within the same scene. Thus, the threshold of the number of place names for bilingual guide signs on highways appears to be 5. Actually, the English place names on the bilingual guide signs did not have much practical effect on the drivers, since the letters of the place names were too small to be quickly seen and the translation was inaccurate.     

视觉语言对听觉障碍人群阅读能力的影响及作用机制

听觉障碍人群由于听觉部分或完全受损, 视觉语言——唇读和手语就成为其阅读能力发展的主要途径。唇读有助于听觉障碍人群形成语音表征, 与词汇知识相互影响, 且可以促进字词阅读及阅读理解的水平; 口语或书面语的加工可以激活相应的手语表征, 手语影响着听觉障碍人群各个层次的阅读能力。未来研究应该关注语音意识、词汇知识等技能在视觉语言影响听觉障碍人群阅读能力过程中的作用机制, 并以视觉语言为中心, 发展出适合汉语听觉障碍人群阅读能力习得的理论模型。