Los procesos de reconocimiento de palabras en la lectura tactil del Braille

Resumen

El objetivo de esta investigación es estudiar los procesos de reconocimiento de las palabras en las personas ciegas. Se parte del modelo de doble víapara el acceso al léxico desarrolladopara los videntes. Los sujetos, niños y adolescentesciegos, debían leer listas de pa labras en las que se ha manipulado la frecuencia (palabras de alta y baja frecuencia y pseudopalabras) y la longitud (palabras largas y cortas). Los resultados nos muestran, en términos generales, que los lectores de Braill. parecen emplear dos vías para acceder al léxico: una primera, indirecta o fonológica, semejante a la de los videntes en la que los lectores reconocen las palabras escritas mediante la aplicación de reglas de transformación grafema-fonema; una segunda vía, que hemos llamado “indirecto- inferencial” en donde el lector, a partir del reconocimiento de las primeras letras de la palabra, recoge información suficiente para “inferir” de qué palabra se trata. Esto indica que los lectores ciegos han desarrollado unas estrategias específicas, para reconocer las palabras escritas en braille.

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study word recognition processes in blind people. The study is based on the dual-route model taken from sighted reading. 35 primary and secondary school blind students were asked to read sets of words in which frecuency (high-frequency, low frequency, and pseudowords) and length (long and short words) were manipulated. Overall, the results suggest that braille readers use two routes to access word representations in mental lexicon: first, an indirect or phonological route in which blind readers, like those sighted, recognize written words through grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules; and a second route that we have called “indirect-inferential”, in which readers after recognising the first letters of a word have enough information to allow them to infer the word. These results suggest that blind readers have developed specific strategies for the recognition of braille words.

Extended Summary

The aim of this research work is to study word recognition processes in blind people. The braille system, used by blind readers, entails some particular characteristics—both perceptual and inherent to the system itself—that can affect the processing of written information. Therefore we cannot expect processes underlying braille reading to be the same as those involved in visual reading. Human subjects develop diverse strategies in order to compensate for deficiencies in a sensory system, so that they are able to achieve similar results through different operations. Braille readers may be a good example of this compensation. Given the nature of their reading, we consider that the main differences between blind and sighted readers may be found in the initial levels of the reading process, because these levels involve perception and recognition of written characters. The present research will focus on this point, the aim is to study word-recognition processes in braille reading, and how these processes develop across different educational levels. The study is based on the dual-route model (Coltheart, 1979; Morton and Patterson, 1982; Paap et al., 1982, 1987; Schwartz, 1984), developed to explain lexical access in sighted readers.

The sample consisted of 35 blind school children aged between X-XX, divided into three groups according to their educational level (first, intermediate, and higher level).

Blind children had to read sets of words in which frequency (high-frequency, low-frequency, and pseudowords) and length (long and short words) were used. The results indicate that word recognition processes involved in braille reading are different to those involved in printed reading. Blind subjects seem to use two routes to access a word's representation in mental lexicon: first, an indirect or phonological route in which blind readers, like sighted ones, recognize words through grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules; and a second route that we have called «indirect-inferential», in which readers only have to identify the first few characters of a word to collect sufficient information to be able to infer the word.

The main differences between blind and sighted readers are in the use of this «indirect-inferential» route. The orthographic route used by sighted readers, cannot be used in braille reading, because subjects cannot perceive the word as a whole. When blind subjects have to read long and high-frequency words, the identification of the first characters allows them to gather enough information to «infer» the whole word, so that they do not need to identify the remaining characters. They only need to identify enough characters to recognize the word. However, when blind subjects have to read a low-frequency or unknown word, they cannot use an inferential process, so they must identify the whole word by means of a phonological route.

The indirect-inferential route is developed by blind readers after they reach a certain educational level. Readers in the first educational level, are only able to use a phonological route to recognize the words. In an intermediate level, readers also begin to use the indirect-inferential route; and at the final level, they are able to use both routes. From an educational viewpoint these results have clear implications for braille instructions and remediation of reading disorders in blind people.

in summary, these results suggest that blind readers have developed specific strategies for the recognition of braille words.

Palabras clave:

• Lectura braille
• acceso léxico
• reconocimiento de palabras
• modelo dual de lectura
• desarrollo de la lectura

Keywords:

• Braille reading
• lexical access
• words recognition
• double route reading model
• development of reading