Examining speech-based phonological recoding during reading for adolescent deaf signers

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• The role of phonological decoding in literacy development for deaf and hard-of-hearing readers is debated.
• Existing literature presents mixed findings on the influence of speech-based processing during reading for this population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the extent to which deaf readers utilize speech-based phonological codes during reading.
• To compare the eye-gaze behaviors of deaf and hearing children when encountering words in sentences.

Main Methods:

• Utilized eye-tracking technology to record eye-gaze patterns of deaf and hearing primary-school children.
• Presented target words of three types: correct, homophonic errors, and nonhomophonic errors within sentence contexts.
• Analyzed eye-gaze fixations during initial word encounters and subsequent rereading.

Main Results:

• Deaf and hearing readers exhibited different eye-movement behaviors during word rereading, but not during initial encounters.
• Hearing readers differentiated between homophonic and nonhomophonic errors upon rereading, unlike deaf readers.
• Deaf readers made fewer regressions to target words, suggesting reduced reliance on error resolution through rereading.

Conclusions:

• Deaf signers appear to engage in phonological decoding to a lesser degree than hearing readers.
• The findings suggest that deaf readers may employ different reading strategies, potentially relying less on phonological processing.
• Eye-tracking data provides insights into the distinct reading mechanisms of deaf individuals.