Current Research on Relationships Between Selected Higher Order Processes and the Communication Skills and Problems of Deaf Persons

This paper presents four research projects in process in the Communication Sciences Laboratory at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. These projects illustrate four broad areas of research on the relationships between higher order information processing systems and the communication skills and problems exhibited by deaf people. Research will be discussed regarding (a) neural factors related to speechreading skills, (b) the relationships between cerebral specialization and communication skills, (c) the role of imagery in memory for signs and words, and (d) the relationship between speech motor programming and speech timing errors in deaf speech. This brief overview is intended to illustrate the utility of research on higher order information processing in increasing our understanding of the communication skills and problems of deaf people.