Performance on color tasks as a function of deafness

Includes bibliographical references (pages 49-51)Seventy-two subjects, including adult deaf, hearing\ud and art students, were tested by means of (1) Color-Form\ud Sorting Task, (2) Color-Form Preference Task, (3) Color-Word\ud Meaning Task, (4) three Color-Tension Tasks and (5)\ud the Press Test, in order to investigate possible differences\ud in performance on color tasks.\ud Results on the Color-Form Sorting Task revealed a significant\ud difference between art, deaf, and hearing students\ud with art students sorting more often by color.\ud On the Color-Form Preference Task, art students preferred\ud color, while the deaf and hearing groups preferred\ud shape.\ud Results of the Color-Word Meaning Task revealed that both hearing and art students expressed more commonly\ud acknowledged meanings for color words than deaf students.\ud This is attributed to the deaf students handicap in the\ud area of verbal learning. Results of the Color-Tension Tasks revealed differences\ud between art, deaf and hearing students, with art students\ud rejecting highly saturated complementary color pairs\ud more often than deaf or hearing students. Deaf students\ud differed from art and hearing students in that they showed\ud a greater preference for pairs of various hues of low\ud saturation and contrast. There were no differences found between the three\ud groups in reading speed or color-naming speed. Art students\ud were more affected by color associative interference\ud than either deaf or hearing students. No differences were\ud found on any of the tasks as a function of sex or the\ud interaction between sex and groups.\ud It was concluded that college-level deaf tend to perform\ud like their hearing counterparts, and that art students\ud differ from the other two groups, probably as a result\ud of their extensive training