Paired Associate Rote Learning in Deaf and Hearing Subjects

Abstract

Ninety-two deaf and 92 hearing subjects were administered a four-pair and an eight-pair word-numeral task under three methods for demonstrating the correct pairs. On each task, the deaf and hearing groups did not differ in number of pairs learned. Neither did they respond differentially to the three methods. For both groups, the effects of the methods varied with task length. On the four-pair task, list-demonstration and item-demonstration were similarly effective, while both methods were more effective than no-demonstration; on the eight-pair task, list-demonstration was most effective, while item-demonstration and no-demonstration did not differ in effectiveness.