Temporal and Causal Reasoning in Deaf and Hearing Novice Readers

Abstract

Temporal and causal information in text are crucial in helping the reader form a coherent representation of a narrative. Deaf novice readers are generally poor at processing linguistic markers of causal/temporal information (i.e., connectives), but what is unclear is whether this is indicative of a more general deficit in reasoning about temporal/causal information. In Study 1, 10 deaf and 63 hearing children, matched for comprehension ability and age, were compared on a range of tasks tapping temporal/causal reasoning skills. In Study 2, 20 deaf and 32 hearing children, matched for age but not reading comprehension ability, were compared on revised versions of the tasks. The pattern of performance of the deaf was different from that of the hearing; they had difficulties when temporal and causal reasoning was text-based, but not when it was nonverbal, indicating that their global temporal/causal reasoning skills are comparable with those of their hearing counterparts.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Alan Garnham (University of Sussex) for his valuable input concerning mixed effects modeling.

Notes

¹ Because of differences in group size between hearing and deaf participants, we also conducted the same analyses using mixed effects modeling. The interaction remained significant (p = .001).

² Because of differences in the group size of hearing and deaf participants, we also conducted the same analyses using mixed effects modeling. The interaction remained significant (p < .001).