title: Are Deaf Students Visual Learners?
abstract: It is frequently assumed that by virtue of their hearing losses, deaf students are visual learners. Deaf individuals have some visual-spatial advantages relative to hearing individuals, but most have been are linked to use of sign language rather than auditory deprivation. How such cognitive differences might affect academic performance has been investigated only rarely. This study examined relations among deaf college students' language and visual-spatial abilities, mathematics problem solving, and hearing thresholds. Results extended some previous findings and clarified others. Contrary to what might be expected, hearing students exhibited visual-spatial skills equal to or better than deaf students. Scores on a Spatial Relations task were associated with better mathematics problem solving. Relations among the several variables, however, suggested that deaf students are no more likely to be visual learners than hearing students and that their visual-spatial skill may be related more to their hearing than to sign language skills.
authors.affiliation: Center for Education Research Partnerships, National Technical Institute for the Deaf - Rochester Institute of Technology, 52 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623 USA ; School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marschark
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lukomski
authors.forename: Georgianna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Borgna
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Convertino
keywords: deaf; mathematics; visual learners; visual-spatial processing