Visual Performance of Adults With Prelingual Auditory Impairment

• Published in: American annals of the deaf (Washington, D.C. 1886) Vol. 149; no. 5; pp. 421 - 427
• Main Authors: Rietveld, Simon, Spiering, Mark, Rotteveel, Mark, van Beest, Ilja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Gallaudet University Press 01.12.2004
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Auditory perception; Case-Control Studies; Comparative Analysis; Computers; Deafness; Deafness - physiopathology; Disabilities; Emotional expression; Expectation; Facial expressions; FEATURE ARTICLES; Female; Hearing disorders; Hearing Impairments; Hearing loss; Humans; Ideograms; Ideographs; Ideography; Information Processing; Japanese; Japanese language; Male; Mental stimulation; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Perceptions; Perceptual Motor Coordination; Photic Stimulation; Priming; Projection Equipment; Reaction Time; Sensory Experience; Sensory perception; Short Term Memory; Stimulation; Stimuli; Visual information; Visual perception; Visual Perception - physiology; Visual Stimuli; Visual task performance
• ISSN: 0002-726X; 1543-0375; 1543-0375
• DOI: 10.1353/aad.2005.0016

Reaction times and picture evaluations by 18 adults with hearing loss were compared with those of 18 matched controls during two visual priming tasks. In Task 1, participants reacted to sexual and plant target pictures (while influenced by similar preceding pictures) by pressing “sex” or “plant” buttons. In Task 2, they evaluated target Japanese ideographs (while influenced by preceding positive or negative facial expressions as prime pictures) by pressing “positive” or “negative” buttons. In Task 1, the controls had the faster responses. In Task 2, they showed the usual congruent priming effect during very short prime presentations. Participants with hearing loss showed this effect only during short and long prime presentation times; thus, they were not superior to the controls in picture recognition, instead showing (a) impaired processing of visual information or (b) impaired perceptual-motor skills regarding quick responses to visual information (or both).