The ability of prelingually, profoundly deaf readers to access phonological information during reading was investigated in three experiments. The experiments employed a task, developed by Meyer, Schvaneveldt, and Ruddy (1974), in which lexical decision response times (RTs) to orthographically similar rhyming (e.g., WAVE-SAVE) and nonrhyming (e.g., HAVE-CAVE) word pairs were compared with RTs to orthographically and phonologically dissimilar control word pairs. The subjects of the study were deaf college students and hearing college students. In Experiments 1 and 2, in which the nonwords were pronounceable, the deaf subjects, like the hearing subjects, were facilitated in their RTs to rhyming pairs, but not to nonrhyming pairs. In Experiment 3, in which the nonwords were unpronounceable, both deaf and hearing subjects were facilitated in their RTs to both rhyming and nonrhyming pairs, with the facilitation being significantly greater for the rhyming pairs. These results indicate that access to phonological information is possible despite prelingual and profound hearing impairment. As such, they run counter to claims that deaf individuals are limited to the use of visual strategies in reading. Given the impoverished auditory experience of such readers, these results suggest that the use of phonological information need not be tied to the auditory modality. There is evidence that, under some experimental con-Meyer et al. (1974) argued that if word reading were ditions, skilled readers with normal hearing access phono-done on a completely visual basis, the following equalogical information about the words they read. One such tion should hold for response times: set of experimental conditions was described by Meyer, Type 2-Type 1 = Type 4-Type 3. Schvaneveldt, and Ruddy (1974). In their procedure, subjects are shown pairs of letter strings to which they If, however, there were a phonological influence, then: respond "yes" if both letter strings are words or "no" Type 2-Type 1 *" Type 4-Type 3. if one or both are nonwords. There are four types of word The inequality was upheld in their study. Meyer et al. pairs. Type 1 word pairs rhyme and are spelled alike eX-found a small facilitation effect for rhyming words (Type I) cept for the first letter (e.g., BRIBE-TRIBE). Type 2 relative to control items of Type 2. They found a large inword pairs are neither orthographically nor phonologi-terference effect for nonrhyming, orthographically sirnically similar; they are re-pairings of words of the first lar pairs (Type 3) relative to control items of Type 4. Betype and serve as control pairs for them. Type 3 word cause the rhyming and nonrhyming test pairs were equally pairs consist of words that are spelled alike except for the similar orthographically, the differential outcome on the first letter, but do not rhyme (e.g., FLOWN-CLOWN). rhyming and nonrhyming pairs could be ascribed unam-Type 4 word pairs consist of control words for these non-biguously to the differences in the phonological relationrhyming pairs. ship between ...

Two experiments were conducted on short-term recall of printed English words by deaf signers of American Sign Language (ASL). Compared with hearing subjects, deaf subjects recalled significantly fewer words when ordered recall of words was required, but not when free recall was required. Deaf subjects tended to use a speech-based code in probed recall for order, and the greater the reliance on a speech-based code, the more accurate the recall. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that a speech-based code facilitates the retention of order information.

is an 'older adult'? **** Various age groupings have been used over the years to define "older." The fact is, aging is a process. Governments define age for pensions and social security, and various services offer senior rates based on age. From an individual's point of view, however, age is largely a state of mind. A person who is 60

Congenitally, profoundly deaf college students were asked to generate rhymes to 50 target words. Results of the experiment indicated that it is possible for deaf individuals to develop the sensitivity to the phonologic structure of words necessary for rhyming: Approximately half of the responses generated were correct rhymes. Of these correct rhymes, the majority were orthographically similar to their target (e.g., BLUE-glue and TIE-lie), although 30% were orthographically dissimilar to their target (e.g., BLUEthrough and TIE-sky), indicating an ability to generate rhymes independent of orthographic structure. Errors were analyzed in an attempt to determine the basis on which the subjects generated rhymes. Evidence of both orthographic and speechrelated strategies were obtained.