Eight tactile-kinesthetic indices and 27 cognitive-ability and mental-speed measures were administered to 195 college students and community members. Results suggest that tactile-kinesthetic abilities share much with broad visualization and fluid intelligence, little with crystallized intelligence, and differential relationships with speed related…

A follow-up study examined the effects of different tactile aids on tasks of visual speech reading in 14 adults with severe hearing impairments. Compared with speech reading alone, tactile aids impaired sentence-based speech reading at first, although performance improved with training. No effects of vibrotactile aids or training were obtained for…

Investigated were the effects of stimulus complexity on habituation of the skin conductance response component of the orienting responses in 16 nonretarded and retarded male adults. (Author)

Two experiments studied the impact of the nature of information available at different processing levels on differences in haptic (tactile) and in visual, free classification development. Found that exploration characteristics (involving simultaneous versus independent processing of stimulus dimensions) and presentation of the stimulus dimensions…

Twenty-six expert adult readers, 13 of whom were blind, were compared for how they perceived and retrieved written information. The study found that braille readers were not limited to the isolated identification of individual braille characters as previously thought, but could integrate greater quantities of written information. Implications for…

Describes two experiments that examined whether the amplitude of the human eyeblink by a mild tap between the eyebrows can be increased if a brief tone is presented simultaneously with the tap and how these effects change from newborn infants to adults. (HOD)

Twenty-four adults with mild mental retardation were compared with equal-mental age children and adults without mental retardation on tactile processing asymmetries. Results suggest that hemispheric processing is dependent on information processing requirements rather than type of stimulus. (Author/JDD)

Five first-hand Web page accounts of unusual sensory perceptual experiences written by persons with high-functioning autism were selected for qualitative analysis. Four core categories emerged: turbulent sensory perceptual experiences; coping mechanisms; enjoyable sensory perceptual experiences; and awareness of being different, suggesting they…

This article explores research on the use of touch with people with mental retardation and learning disabilities for the purpose of developing a staff training package. The review indicates the therapeutic role of touch and its use in behavior management and discusses the need for increasing staff awareness of the practice with this group of…

Twenty students and 45 adults with visual impairments or blindness were administered a test of tactile concentration and short-term memory involving the reproduction of the order of finger stimulation using the Finger Knocking Box. Reliability and validity scores indicated encouraging results with use of the instrument. (JDD)

The paper reports the results of preliminary tests of the speechreading ability of a deaf blind adult who uses the Tadoma Method (speechreading based solely on vibrotactile information) for language acquisition and information. (Author/PHR)

The recognition performance for segmental stimuli was compared when presented through a single-channel tactile device and through a 24-channel vocoder. Both consonant and vowel stimuli were tested under visual only, tactile only, and visual/tactile conditions. Results indicated no significant performance differences for the 12 artificially…

This paper describes the approach to speech training used with a young congenitally deaf adult. Two tactile aids (Tactaid VII and Tactaid 2000+) were used to provide feedback on speech production. Following a one-year training period, listeners with normal hearing were able to understand about 90 percent of the subject's words in an…

Designed for teaching the related services staff, residential care providers, and families of individuals with severe hearing and vision impairments, this booklet explains the issues related to developing a communication system using textures. The texture symbols described are intended for use by individuals with dual sensory and multiple…

Visualized braille was presented on closed circuit television (CCTV) to six blind tactile braille reading subjects (ages 12-50). Results supported cross-modal transfer of learning from tactile to visual modality. After intensive visual training, these subjects could discriminate visual forms and read ordinary print using the CCTV. (Author/BS)