Superior verbal but not nonverbal memory in congenital blindness

Arcos, Karen; Harhen, Nora; Loiotile, Rita; Bedny, Marina

doi:10.1007/s00221-021-06304-4

Research Article
Published: 25 January 2022

Superior verbal but not nonverbal memory in congenital blindness

Experimental Brain Research volume 240, pages 897–908 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Previous studies suggest that people who are congenitally blind outperform sighted people on some memory tasks. Whether blindness-associated memory advantages are specific to verbal materials or are also observed with nonverbal sounds has not been determined. Congenitally blind individuals (n = 20) and age and education matched blindfolded sighted controls (n = 22) performed a series of auditory memory tasks. These included: verbal forward and backward letter spans, a complex letter span with intervening equations, as well as two matched recognition tasks: one with verbal stimuli (i.e., letters) and one with nonverbal complex meaningless sounds. Replicating previously observed findings, blind participants outperformed sighted people on forward and backward letter span tasks. Blind participants also recalled more letters on the complex letter span task despite the interference of intervening equations. Critically, the same blind participants showed larger advantages on the verbal as compared to the nonverbal recognition task. These results suggest that blindness selectively enhances memory for verbal material. Possible explanations for blindness-related verbal memory advantages include blindness-induced memory practice and ‘visual’ cortex recruitment for verbal processing.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the study participants, the blind community, as well as the National Federation of the Blind for their assistance with this research. We also wish to thank Rashi Pant, Brianna Aheimer, and other members of the Neuroplasticity and Development Lab for assisting with collecting data. We gratefully acknowledge funding from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1321846) (to Karen Arcos) and a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship to (Karen Arcos). We also acknowledge a Grant from the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health (1R01EY027352-01A), as well as a Science of Learning Grant from Johns Hopkins University. The authors are solely responsible for the content; it does not necessarily represent funding agencies' official views.

Funding

A National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1321846) and a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship supported (Karen Arcos). A Grant from the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health (1R01EY027352-01A), as well as a Science of Learning Grant from Johns Hopkins University also supported this research. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

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Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
Karen Arcos & Nora Harhen
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Rita Loiotile & Marina Bedny

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Karen Arcos
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Nora Harhen
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Rita Loiotile
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Marina Bedny
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Correspondence to Karen Arcos.

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Data is available in an Open Science Framework (OSF) project (https://osf.io/etgyh).

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Arcos, K., Harhen, N., Loiotile, R. et al. Superior verbal but not nonverbal memory in congenital blindness. Exp Brain Res 240, 897–908 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06304-4

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Received: 05 June 2021
Accepted: 30 December 2021
Published: 25 January 2022
Issue Date: March 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06304-4

Keywords

Congenitally blind
Verbal
Nonverbal
Memory
Recognition memory