Investigation of the instrumental and active touch, attention and learning

Abstract

There are many possible mechanisms responsible for the compensation of lost vision. The role of attention and learning in the compensation process is the most easy to check. In the present paper the results of the comparative investigation of instrumental and active touch, attention and learning in three groups of subjects (having normal, slight and lost vision) are presented. The group with slight vision consisted of subjects who use the normal alphabet in reading and writing. The subjects who permanently use the alphabet designed for the blind made up the group of lost vision. The blind made significantly fewer mistakes in instrumental touch and especially in active touch than the other two groups. The task performance level index which is the multiplication of mistakes and the time lost for the task performance was the fewest also for the blind. Judging from the values of mistakes, the task performance time and performance level index for the group having slight vision showed the poorest results both in instrumental touch and in detection of tactile signals. Those with normal vision occupied the intermediate position. According to the indexes of learning, divided attention and concentration no significant differences between the three groups were obtained. The model of selective attention is presented in the descriptive way. The interaction of multiple channels of information makes the basis of this model. With the help of this model the facts dealing with simultaneous performance of two or several tasks are being tried to explain.