Similar digit-based working memory in deaf signers and hearing non-signers despite digit span differences

Andin, Josefine, Orfanidou, Eleni, Cardin, Velia, Holmer, Emil, Capek, Cheryl M, Woll, Bencie, Rönnberg, Jerker and Rudner, Mary (2013) Similar digit-based working memory in deaf signers and hearing non-signers despite digit span differences. Frontiers in Psychology, 4. ISSN 1664-1078

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Abstract

Similar working memory (WM) for lexical items has been demonstrated for signers and non-signers while short-term memory (STM) is regularly poorer in deaf than hearing individuals. In the present study, we investigated digit-based WM and STM in Swedish and British deaf signers and hearing non-signers. To maintain good experimental control we used printed stimuli throughout and held response mode constant across groups. We showed that deaf signers have similar digit-based WM performance, despite shorter digit spans, compared to well-matched hearing non-signers. We found no difference between signers and non-signers on STM span for letters chosen to minimize phonological similarity or in the effects of recall direction. This set of findings indicates that similar WM for signers and non-signers can be generalized from lexical items to digits and suggests that poorer STM in deaf signers compared to hearing non-signers may be due to differences in phonological similarity across the language modalities of sign and speech.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Related URLs:	http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/1...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	07 Apr 2017 05:09
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 02:32
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63195
DOI:	10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00942

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