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Blind children recognizing tactile pictures respond like sighted children given guidance in exploration
Author(s) -
D’Angiulli Amede,
Kennedy John M,
Helle Morton A
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9450.393077
Subject(s) - partially sighted , psychology , cognitive psychology , test (biology) , developmental psychology , visually impaired , human–computer interaction , computer science , paleontology , biology
Theory of tactile pictures argues that untrained blind subjects can recognize raised, outline pictures. It contends the blind person’s knowledge of the shapes of common objects is like that of the sighted, and the blind person’s pictorial abilities use the same principles as the sighted person’s. To test this theory, blind children (aged 8–13) and blindfolded age‐matched sighted children were asked to identify raised‐line drawings of common objects. Their performances were correlated. In addition, the blind children identified more than sighted children exploring the pictures actively, but the same number of pictures as sighted children who were given passive, guided exploration. We argue blind and sighted children use the same principles to identify the pictures, but the blind have superior exploration skills. The differences in the effects of exploration skills on recognition scores are minimized when the sighted children are given guidance, since the sighted children then have efficient contact with the displays, and the performance of the sighted and the blind is then governed by the same principles, without one group benefitting from advantages in exploration skills.