Frontiers in Psychology (Dec 2013)

Similar digit-based working memory in deaf signers and hearing non-signers despite digit span differences

  • Josefine eAndin,
  • Eleni eOrfanidou,
  • Velia eCardin,
  • Velia eCardin,
  • Emil eHolmer,
  • Cheryl M Capek,
  • Bencie eWoll,
  • Jerker eRönnberg,
  • Mary eRudner

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00942
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4

Abstract

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Similar working memory (WM) for lexical items has been demonstrated for signers and non-signers while short-term memory (STM) is regularly poorer in deaf than hearing individuals. In the present study, we investigated digit-based WM and STM in Swedish and British deaf signers and hearing non-signers. To maintain good experimental control we used printed stimuli throughout and held response mode constant across groups. We showed that deaf signers have similar digit-based WM performance, despite shorter digit spans, compared to well-matched hearing non-signers. We found no difference between signers and non-signers on STM span for letters chosen to minimize phonological similarity or in the effects of recall direction. This set of findings indicates that similar WM for signers and non-signers can be generalized from lexical items to digits and suggests that poorer STM in deaf signers compared to hearing non-signers may be due to differences in phonological similarity across the language modalities of sign and speech.

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