The Effects of Bimodal (Sound-Light) Stimulus Presentation on Selective Responding of Deaf-Blind Multihandicapped Children

An investigation of the value of light reinforcement pedoaudiometric techniques for hearing assessments was conducted using the PLAYTEST operant procedure for eight severely multihandicapped, deaf, and visually impaired children with rubella syndrome. The findings of Experiment 1 showed significantly poorer discriminative performance under the light-reinforced condition for all eight children. Experiment 2 assessed the effects of bimodal (auditory-visual) stimulus presentation more definitively. Findings of poorer selectivity but increased general activity were consistent for both auditory and visual tasks. The detrimental effect of bimodal presentation and its implications for the testing and training of neurologically impaired deaf-blind children is discussed.