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Chinese Children with Congenital and Acquired Blindness Represent Concrete Concepts in Vertical Space through Tactile Perception

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  • Guangyin Shen

    (Shenzhen Yuanping Special Education School, Shenzhen 518112, China)

  • Ruiming Wang

    (Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China)

  • Mengru Yang

    (School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China)

  • Jiushu Xie

    (School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China)

Abstract

Many studies have tested perceptual symbols in conceptual processing and found that perceptual symbols contain experiences from multisensory channels. However, whether the disability of one sensory channel affects the processing of the perceptual symbols and then affects conceptual processing is still unknown. This line of research would extend the perceptual symbol theory and have implications for language rehabilitation and mental health for people with disabilities. Therefore, the present study filled in this gap and tested whether Chinese children with congenital and acquired blindness have difficulty in recruiting perceptual symbols in the processing of concrete concepts. Experiment 1 used the word-pair-matching paradigm to test whether blind children used vertical space information in understanding concrete word pairs. Experiment 2 used the word-card-pairing paradigm to test the role of tactile experiences in the processing of concrete concepts for blind children. Results found that blind children automatically activated the spatial information of referents in the processing of concepts through the tactile sensory channel even when the visual sensory channel was disabled. This finding supported the compensatory phenomenon of other sensory channels in conceptual representation. In addition, the difference between elementary school blind children and middle school blind children in judging the spatial position of concrete words also indicated the vital influence of perceptual experiences on perceptual symbols in conceptual representation. Interestingly, there were no significant differences between children with congenital or acquired blindness. This might suggest that the compensatory of other sensory channels did not have a sensitive period. This study not only provided new evidence for the perceptual symbol theory but also found that perceptual symbols could be developed by a compensatory mechanism. This compensatory mechanism can be used to develop a rehabilitation program for improving language learning in blind children. Improved language ability in blind children will also improve their mental health problems caused by difficulties in social interaction (e.g., social anxiety).

Suggested Citation

  • Guangyin Shen & Ruiming Wang & Mengru Yang & Jiushu Xie, 2022. "Chinese Children with Congenital and Acquired Blindness Represent Concrete Concepts in Vertical Space through Tactile Perception," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:11055-:d:906104
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Brigitte Röder & Wolfgang Teder-Sälejärvi & Anette Sterr & Frank Rösler & Steven A. Hillyard & Helen J. Neville, 1999. "Improved auditory spatial tuning in blind humans," Nature, Nature, vol. 400(6740), pages 162-166, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Xinyi Zou & Ying Zhou, 2023. "Spatial Cognition of the Visually Impaired: A Case Study in a Familiar Environment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-21, January.

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