Audition and visual attention: the developmental trajectory in deaf and hearing populations.
This study examined the development of visual attention in 5- to 13-year-olds who differed in their access to sound. Hearing children, deaf children with cochlear implants, and deaf children without implants participated in a task in which they were to respond to some visual signals and not others. The results of Experiment I indicated that the timing of developmental changes in visual selective attention was similar for all 3 groups, occurring around 8 years. The magnitude of age-related change differed among groups; hearing children and older deaf children using a cochlear implant reached higher levels of performance with age than did deaf children without enhanced access to sound. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that the developmental differences between deaf children with and without cochlear implants begin prior to 8 years and may be related to their use of environmental sounds to organize visual attention.
Smith
L B
LB
Department of Psychology, Indiana University Bloomington, 47405, USA. smith4@indiana.edu
Quittner
A L
AL
Osberger
M J
MJ
Miyamoto
R
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000523:psychology*; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance