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Phonological representations in deaf children: rethinking the "functional equivalence" hypothesis
Lynn McQuarrie1, Rauno Parrila
1Department of Educational Psychology, 6-102 Education North, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G2G5. lynn.mcquarrrie@ualberta.ca
Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
|July 19, 2008
Summary
Deaf children
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Word similarity judgments are believed to rely on phonological representations.
- Understanding how deaf learners develop these representations is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of perceptual similarity on deaf children's phonological similarity judgments.
- To differentiate between phonological, visual, and tactile/motoric information sources.
Main Methods:
- Examined judgments at syllable, rhyme, and phoneme levels.
- Manipulated stimulus contrasts (acoustic, visual/orthographic, tactile/motoric).
Main Results:
- Phonological facilitation was not consistently linked to syllable, rhyme, or phoneme judgments.
- Perceptual similarity effects varied across sensory modalities.
Conclusions:
- Findings challenge the assumption of functional equivalence between auditory and visual speech for deaf learners.
- Previous studies may have overestimated phonological influences due to insufficient control of sensory information.
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