María Teresa Daza

Visual working memory in deaf children with diverse communication modes: Improvement by differential outcomes

Although visual functions have been proposed to be enhanced in deaf individuals, empirical studies have not yet established clear evidence on this issue. The present study aimed to determine whether deaf children with diverse communication modes had superior visual memory and whether their performance was improved by the use of differential outcomes. Severely or profoundly deaf children who employed spoken Spanish, Spanish Sign Language (SSL), and both spoken Spanish and SSL modes of communication were tested in a delayed matching-to-sample task for visual working memory assessment. Hearing controls were used to compare performance. Participants were tested in two conditions, differential outcome and non-differential outcome conditions. Deaf groups with either oral or SSL modes of communication completed the task with less accuracy than bilingual and control hearing children. In addition, the performances of all groups improved through the use of differential outcomes.

Semantic activation in the absence of perceptual awareness

Participants performed a semantic categorization task on a target that was preceded by a prime word belonging either to the same category (20% of trials) or to a different category (80% of trials). The prime was presented for 33 msec and followed either immediately or after a delay by a pattern mask. With the immediate mask, reaction times (RTs) were shorter on related than on unrelated trials. This facilitatory priming reached significance at prime-target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 400 msec or less and remained unaffected by task practice. With the delayed mask, RTs were longer on related than on unrelated trials. This reversed (strategic) semantic priming proved to be significant (1) only at a prime-target SOA of 400 msec or longer and (2) after the participants had some practice with the task. The present findings provide further evidence that perceiving a stimulus with and without phenomenological awareness can lead to qualitatively different behavioral consequences.

Language skills and nonverbal cognitive processes associated with reading comprehension in deaf children.

The main aim of this study was to examine the relationship between language skills (vocabulary knowledge and phonological awareness), nonverbal cognitive processes (attention, memory and executive functions) and reading comprehension in deaf children. Participants were thirty prelingually deaf children (10.7 ± 1.6 years old; 18 boys, 12 girls), who were classified as either good readers or poor readers by their scores on two reading comprehension tasks. The children were administered a rhyme judgment task and seven computerized neuropsychological tasks specifically designed and adapted for deaf children to evaluate vocabulary knowledge, attention, memory and executive functions in deaf children. A correlational approach was also used to assess the association between variables. Although the two groups did not show differences in phonological awareness, good readers showed better vocabulary and performed significantly better than poor readers on attention, memory and executive functions measures. Significant correlations were found between better scores in reading comprehension and better scores on tasks of vocabulary and non-verbal cognitive processes. The results suggest that in deaf children, vocabulary knowledge and nonverbal cognitive processes such as selective attention, visuo-spatial memory, abstract reasoning and sequential processing may be especially relevant for the development of reading comprehension.

Development of attention networks in deaf children: Support for the integrative hypothesis

Early auditory deprivation is known to affect visual attention, yet the early effects of auditory deprivation on visual attention cannot be described simply as deficiencies or enhancements, because selected aspects of visual attention could be modified in various ways along the developmental trajectory. However, few studies have explored the development of these various aspects of visual attention in deaf children. In this paper we study the developmental trajectory of three aspects of visual attention (alerting, orienting and executive control attention networks) in a group of deaf children between 6 and 12 years of age. We used the attention network test to explore the development of the three attention networks and a child-friendly version of the cost-benefit paradigm to characterize the development of the basic operations of orienting. Our results showed a pattern of specific but varied outcomes with respect to the effects of auditory deprivation on these attention networks. First, auditory deprivation can impair development of the alerting network. Second, auditory deprivation can enhance two elementary operations of orienting: moving and engaging. Third, the executive control network showed a developmental trajectory that was neither deficient nor enhanced, but rather similar to that observed with hearing children. Taken together, these results are consistent with the integrative hypothesis of the effects of auditory deprivation on visual attention.

Subjective Psychological Well-Being in Families with Blind Children: How Can We Improve It?

The aim of this work was to examine family well-being in a sample of Spanish families with blind children. Sixty-one participants reported their perceived economic status, the level of job satisfaction, and state-anxiety symptoms. The participants of our study scored higher on state-anxiety and lower on material well-being than the normative sample, although these differences did not reach statistical significance. They also scored higher on job satisfaction and family satisfaction than the general population. A negative correlation was found between state-anxiety and material well-being (r = - 0.62, p = 0.001) and between state-anxiety and family satisfaction (r = - 0.57, p = 0.001). A positive correlation was found between material well-being and job satisfaction (r = 0.40, p = 0.001), and between material well-being and family satisfaction (r = 0.41, p = 0.001). Higher levels of material well-being, job satisfaction, and family satisfaction were associated with lower levels of anxiety in these families. However, no statistically significant correlation was found between family satisfaction and job satisfaction. Our results suggest that the family experience of having a disabled child is evolving, and this implies achieving greater job and family satisfaction than the normative samples, although anxiety scores continue to be higher and material well-being scores remain lower. On the whole, our results confirm that it is necessary to provide these families with more economic resources, which would have a positive impact on their subjective psychological well-being, decreasing their state-anxiety, and increasing their satisfaction with life.

Factors Associated with the Anxiety, Subjective Psychological Well-Being and Self-Esteem of Parents of Blind Children

The objective was to examine the connection of the personal, social and family context, educational variables with the levels of anxiety, subjective psychological well-being and self-esteem in a sample of 61 parents of blind children. Results suggest that parents present less anxiety when they have only one child, possess a technical degree, receive remuneration for their work, their child’s visual impairment is not progressive, their knowledge about their child’s disability is appropriate, and their leisure and labour possibilities have not been affected. Their psychological well-being is higher when they are married in first nuptials and perceive that their health is good. Their well-being is negatively related to reduced leisure, and self-esteem is lower when labour possibilities have been affected. In order for these families to achieve a more pleasant life, with greater psychological well-being, lower anxiety and higher self-esteem, professionals should be aware of the aspects with a negative impact.