title: The effect of visual deprivation on the organization of conceptual knowledge: testing the grounded cognition hypothesis.
abstract: The present paper evaluates the effect of visual deprivation on the organization and retrieval of conceptual knowledge. The experimental study used the release from proactive interference (PI-release) paradigm. Early onset blind (EOB) and sighted (S) subjects were tested with this task and additional visual and nonvisual property retrieval cues. PI-release results showed that the visual cue was less effective for EOB individuals than for S individuals, whereas the nonvisual cue was similarly effective for EOB individuals and S individuals. Results support a grounded view of cognition where the organization of conceptual knowledge depends on the role that sensory and motor channels play in its acquisition.
authors.affiliation: Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. jfredmarq@fpce.ul.pt
authors.forename: J Frederico
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Marques
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001766:Blindness / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D003210:Concept Formation; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D014796:Visual Perception