Donald Fuller

Toward an Augmentative and Alternative Communication symbol taxonomy: A proposed superordinate classification

As the first step in developing a symbol taxonomy, the major augmentative and alternative communication symbol classifications reported in the literature over the past decade are reviewed. The terms used to classify symbols are critically evaluated according to their internal logic, their sociolinguistic implications, and their compatibility with common definitions and usage. The clinical and educational relevance of the classification approach in question, and the reduction of dualclassification ambiguity that a given dichotomy may provide are also evaluated. The aided/unaided classification is based on production of the symbol by the user, while the static/dynamic classification is based upon the nature of the symbols signal. Although both of these dichotomies have clinical/educational and theoretical/research implications, the aided/unaided dichotomy is proposed as the less ambiguous and the more practical classification for the superordinate level of a taxonomy. A major purpose of this paper is to st...

Toward a common usage of lconicity terminology

One problem facing the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is inconsistent terminology. This may be due in part to the international and transdisciplinary nature of the field....

Further development of an Augmentative and Alternative Communication symbol taxonomy

This paper is a continuation of the Lloyd and Fuller (1986) manuscript that proposed the aided/unaided dichotomy as the superordinate level of an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) symbol taxonomy. Possible categories for the proposed subordinate levels of the taxonomy are based on three sources: (1) previously published AAC symbol selection considerations, (2) the recently published output/input modalities scheme (van Balkom & Welle Donker-Gimbrere, 1988), and (3) the static/dynamic classification, which was discussed in the previous taxonomy paper. Using six criteria (the five mentioned in Lloyd & Fuller, 1986, in addition to a sixth criterion), the static/dynamic, the iconic/opaque, and the set/system classifications are proposed as subordinate levels under the superordinate “aided/unaided.” This taxonomy is proposed to stimulate further discussion and research in an attempt to expand our fields clinical/educational and research/theoretical base.

A study of physical and semantic characteristics of a graphic symbol system as predictors of perceived complexity

This investigation had a two-fold purpose. First, it attempted to determine if cognitively normal adults who were not familiar with Blissymbolics could reliably rate a sample of those symbols according to perceived complexity. Second, a correlational analysis was performed to determine if certain physical and/or semantic characteristics of the system could predict the complexity ratings. Thirty-one college students were instructed to rate 91 Blissymbols according to how complex they perceived the symbols to be. Four procedures were then used to determine the overall reliability of those ratings. Results indicated that the subjects could indeed make reliable ratings of perceived complexity. Next, the ratings were used as the dependent variable in a multiple regression analysis to determine if any of the seven physical and two semantic characteristics inherent in the system could serve as predictors of perceived complexity. The correlational analysis indicated that strokes and semanticelements were the best...

Initial study into the effects of translucency and complexity on the learning of Blissymbols by children and adults with normal cognitive abilities

This study investigated the effects of translucency and complexity on the acquisition of Blissymbols by children and adults possessing normal cognitive abilities. Preschool children and college-aged adults were required to learn the referent names of 40 Blissymbols selected according to high and low levels of translucency and complexity so that 10 symbols were in each orthogonal condition (referred to as “categories”: high translucency-low complexity [HTLC], high translucency-high complexity [HTHC], low translucency-low complexity [LTLC], and low translucency-high complexity [LTHC]). The results indicated that translucency facilitated acquisition for both groups of subjects while complexity appeared to be a factor for children only. The implications of the findings for clinical practice and further research are discussed.

Representativeness versus translucency: different theoretical backgrounds, but are they really different concepts? a position paper

As the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) continues to broaden its base on both international and transdisciplinary levels, it becomes increasingly important that researchers, educators, and other professionals subscribe to the same terminology. Two terms have been used in recent years to describe what appears to be the same concept. Yovetich has defined and quantified a variable called “representativeness,” which is associated with Dual Coding Theory. This variable is similar to translucency, a variable that describes an aspect of iconicity. Although proponents of Dual Coding Theory state that the two variables are distinctly different concepts, evidence suggests that the two actually describe the same phenomenon. This belief is based upon the following findings: (1) representativeness and translucency are defined and quantified in the same manner, (2) both variables have the same effect on the learning of Blissymbols, (3) the two have been found to influence symbol learnability mo...