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Updated: May 10, 2026

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique
Published on: September 7, 2022
Are Deaf Students Visual Learners?
Marc Marschark1, Carolyn Morrison, Jennifer Lukomski
1Center 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.
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.
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