| The concern of this study was the relationship of primary mode of human communication to the development of complex cognition.;The research sample consisted of two groups of matched subjects. In one group, the primary mode of human communication was oral/aural, and in the other group the primary mode of human communication was gestural/visual. Each of the gestural/visual subjects was congenitally, profoundly, sensori-neurally deaf. The subjects in both groups were aged 14 to 19, inclusive, had normal intelligence, and had no additional handicap. The subject pairs were matched on eight variables in addition to primary mode of human communication: age, sex, ethnic background, number of siblings, birth order, presence of a mother figure in the home, presence of a father figure in the home, and socioeconomic status. Fourteen subject pairs were tested, however, two pairs were excluded from the data analysis because of error in selection of two oral/aural subjects.;Complex cognition was measured through a test of analogical reasoning. The instrument was constructed by the researcher, according to the following criteria: (1) the instrument was composed entirely of analogies (A:B :: C:D); (2) half of the analogies contained words and half contained figures; (3) all words appearing in the analogies were confined to a second grade vocabulary level; and (4) half of the analogies contained paired terms which were similar and half contained paired terms which were dissimilar. Objective scores were obtained by summing the number of correct responses to the test items.;It was hypothesized that (1) the oral/aural subjects would achieve significantly higher overall scores on analogical reasoning: (2) the gestural/visual subjects would successfully complete significantly more Similar analogies than Dissimilar analogies; (3) neither of the subject groups would show a significant difference in performance on Word analogies and Figure analogies; and (4) gestural/visual subjects who had been exposed to a gestural/visual system since birth would not score significantly higher than subjects in the same sample group who had not been exposed to a gestural/visual system since birth. The fourth hypothesis was not tested because none of the subjects in the research sample were children of deaf parents.;The theoretical foundation of this research proposed that the perception of hierarchical levels of contrast has an important role in the development of complex cognition, and that the perception of contrast is best facilitated by the oral/aural mode of human communication.;Each of the three research hypotheses was tested by analyzing the subjects' scores with a t-test for significant difference between the means for correlated samples. Each of the hypotheses was supported. As predicted, the oral/aural subjects demonstrated superior analogical reasoning to that of the gestural/visual subjects, at a p < .005 level of significance. Both subject groups correctly solved significantly more Similar than Dissimilar analogies (p < .005 for both groups), but the oral/aural group correctly solved significantly more Dissimilar analogies than did the gestural/visual groups (p < .01). As predicted, the gestural visual group showed no significant difference in performance on Word vs. Figure analogies; the oral/aural group had a higher success rate on Word analogies than on Figure analogies (p < .01), but still performed significantly better than the gestural/visual on the Figure analogies (p < .05). Each finding thus contributed support to the theoretical position tested in this research.;The research results were discussed in the final chapter. The limitations of the study also were addressed in the last chapter, and suggestions were made for future research. |
