Development of cutaneous and kinesthetic localization by blind and sighted children

Seventy-eight blind and 160 sighted subjects in the age range 5-12 years were compared in cutaneous and kinesthetic localization. There were two experimental conditions for both types of localization. In Condition 1, both blind and sighted subjects made a localizing response without the aid of visual cues. Sighted subjects only were tested in Condition 2 which was like Condition 1 except subjects opened their eyes while making the localization response. Cutaneous and kinesthetic localization by blind subjects was superior to that by sighted subjects under Condition 1. Localization by sighted subjects under Condition 2 was superior to localization by both groups under Condition 1. The results are discussed in terms of the interactive effects of sensory systems. Comparisons of blind and sighted people often aim at elucidating the effects of vision on functioning in other modalities. Gomulicki (1961) compared 163 blind children with 170 sighted children between the ages of 5 and 16 years. He found that tactual perception of three-dimensi onal objects (stereognosis) by blind subjects was slower and less accurate than by sighted subjects of the same age. Axelrod (1959), on the other hand, found that cutaneous discriminations measured by 2-point thresholds were finer in blind children than in sighted. Also, Hunter (1953), in a comparison of the kinesthetic perception of straightness in blind and sighted adolescents, found that the blind have a lower threshold for the detection of curvature and were also less variable than the sighted. However, 6 out of 20 of Hunter's blind subjects had had considerable visual experience until at least the sixth year. This is an important point since children who lose their sight after the fifth or sixth year often retain considerable visual memory (Schlaegel, 1953), which may influence their performance when blind. There is, in fact, considerable evidence that the late

Audiology · Cognitive psychology · Deaf blind · Developmental psychology · Kinesthetic learning · Partially sighted · Visually impaired · Medicine · Psychology · Tactile and Sensory Interactions

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