Word recall in deaf students: the effects of different coding strategies

This study examined whether instructions to use specific word coding strategies affected deaf students immediate and delayed final free recall of English word lists. Both the word-coding strategy and the visual imagery value of the words were important factors in word recall. 44 deaf students participated. Those who received instructions to produce the sign language equivalent of each stimulus word tended to recall more words over all than those students instructed to fingerspell each word or those instructed to form a sign language sentence that included the stimulus word. Stimulus words rated high in imagery value were recalled more frequently than words with low imagery values across coding strategies and in both immediate and delayed memory. In addition, analyses of serial position indicated pronounced primary and recency effects in immediate recall of words and a primacy effect in delayed final recall. These findings are discussed in relation to current conceptualizations of memory and language processing in deaf students.