Deaf versus hearing subjects' recall of words on a distraction task as a function of the signability of the words.
Subjects, including 17 deaf and 10 hearing students in Grades 11 and 12, completed a test for memory of lists of 6 words (presented visually for 10 sec.). Subjects recalled the words in writing after a distracting task of adding pairs of digits for 10 sec. Word lists are categorized as signable with a single sign, compound or combination of signs, or finger-spelling signs only. Hearing subjects recalled significantly more words in each category than did deaf subjects. Deaf subjects recalled significantly more single-signed words than either of the other two categories. Deaf subjects did not recall more compound/combination signed words than words that could only be finger-spelled. Hearing subjects also recalled significantly more single-signed words than either of the other two categories and were not superior in either of the other categories.
Spencer
S
S
Department of Psychology, Allegheny College, Meadville, PA 16335.
Dale
J A
JA
Klions
H L
HL
D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology*; D004519:Education, Special; D006801:Humans; D008369:Manual Communication; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D012813:Sign Language; D014706:Verbal Learning