Change Blindness in non-signers deaf individuals and cochlear implant patients
Poster Presentation

Davide Bottari
Dipartimento di Scienze della Cognizione e della Formazione, Università di Trento Italy

Francesca Bonfioli
Gruppo Rovereto Impianti Cocleari, Unità Operativa dell'Ospedale "Santa Maria del Carmine" Italy

Massimo Turatto
Dipartimento di Scienze della Cognizione e della Formazione, Università di Trento Italy. Centro interdipartimentale Mente e Cervello, Università di Trento, Italy

Chiara Abbadessa
Gruppo Rovereto Impianti Cocleari, Unità Operativa dell'Ospedale "Santa Maria del Carmine" Italy

Silvana Selmi
Unità Operativa di Psicologia n°2 Rovereto Italy

Millo Achille Beltrame
Gruppo Rovereto Impianti Cocleari, Unità Operativa dell'Ospedale "Santa Maria del Carmine" Italy

Francesco Pavani
Dipartimento di Scienze della Cognizione e della Formazione, Università di Trento Italy. Centro interdipartimentale Mente e Cervello, Università di Trento, Italy

     Abstract ID Number: 151
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: April 27, 2006
     Presentation date: 06/18/2006 4:00 PM in Hamilton Building, Foyer
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
Change blindness in non-signers deaf individuals and cochlear implant patients

Davide Bottari1, Francesca Bonfioli3, Massimo Turatto1,2, Chiara Abbadessa3,
Silvana Selmi3, Millo Achille Beltrame3, Francesco Pavani1,2

1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Cognizione e della Formazione, Università di Trento, Italy
2. Centro Interdipartimentale Mente e Cervello, Università di Trento, Italy
3. Gruppo Rovereto Impianti Cocleari, Unità Operativa dell'Ospedale “Santa Maria del Carmine”, Italy


Deaf individuals using sign language may show improved performances in visual tasks with respect to hearing controls, particularly at the periphery of the visual field. However, the role of sign language in these findings and the potential consequences of reafferentation after cocheal implant (CI) remains unclear. Here, we compared performance of early and late deafness individuals as well as CI patients, all educated to lip-reading only, with that of normal-hearing controls in a change blindness task. Two sets of simple drawings were presented simultaneously near the centre and periphery of the computer display for 200ms each, separated by a 500ms gap. Participants were instructed to detect whether one drawing changed in the second set. Across blocks their visual attention was either focused on central or peripheral stimuli, or divided across the whole scene. In all groups change sensitivity (d’) was neither modulated by stimulus eccentricity nor by stimulus side. Instead, sensitivity advantages reliably emerged during focal than divided attention for all groups except for early-deafness individuals, for whom no sensitivity costs emerged in the divided attention condition. These findings suggest enhanced divided attention abilities in early deafness, and a remarkable return to normal distribution of visual attention after CI surgery.