Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Earlier studies have reported an inverse relationship between information load and internally generated stimulation in the form of task-unrelated images and thoughts (TUITs). It was hypothesized, based on these studies and several theories of optimal stimulation levels, that auditory deprivation, as chronically experienced by the severely hearing-impaired, would result in more frequent TUITs. TUITs were reported, shortly after they occurred, while the participant was engaged in a visual sustained attention task. Both intentional and spontaneous TUITs were recorded. The hearing-impaired participants (n = 15, 20 to 26 years old) all had experienced severe or profound auditory loss prior to the age for normal acquisition of language. As hypothesized, the severely hearing-impaired participants had significantly, p < .05, more TUITs than normal-hearing participants (n = 17, 18 to 30 years old).

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Zubek

J. P.

, Sensory Deprivation: Fifteen Years of Research, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1969.

Suedfeld

, Restricted Environmental Stimulation: Research and Clinical Applications, Wiley and Sons, New York, 1980.

Antrobus

J. S.

, Information Theory and Stimulus-Dependent Thought, British Journal of Psychology, 59, pp. 423–430, 1968.

Giambra

L. M.

, Task-Unrelated Thought Frequency as a Function of Age: A Laboratory Study, Psychology and Aging, 4, pp. 136–143, 1989.

Giambra

L. M.

, A Laboratory Method for Investigating Influences on Switching Attention to Task-Unrelated Imagery and Thought, Consciousness and Cognition, 4, pp. 1–21, 1995.

Zuckerman

, Theoretical Formulations: I, in Sensory Deprivation: Fifteen Years of Research, Zubek

J. P.

(ed.), Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, pp. 407–432, 1969.

Zuckerman

, Sensation Seeking: Beyond the Optimal Level of Arousal, Wiley and Sons, New York, 1979.

Zuckerman

, Biological Bases of Sensation Seeking, Impulsivity and Anxiety, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1983.

Jones

, Stimulus-Seeking Behavior, in Sensory Deprivation: Fifteen Years of Research, Zupek

J. P.

(ed.), Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, pp. 167–206, 1969.

10.

Windholz

, Dissatisfaction and Sensation-Seeking as Related to Frequency of Daydreaming Reported by Male Subjects, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 30, pp. 892–894, 1970.

11.

Levine

S. E.

, The Ecology of Early Deafness, Columbia, New York, 1981.

12.

Belmont

J. M.

Karchmer

M. A.

Bourg

J. W.

, Structural Influences on Deaf and Hearing Children's Recall of Temporal/Spatial Incongruent Letter Strings, Educational Psychology, 3, pp. 259–274, 1983.

13.

Peters

Potter

Scholer

, Hearing Impairment as a Predictor of Cognitive Decline in Dementia, Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 36, pp. 981–986, 1988.

14.

Uhlmann

Larson

Rees

Koepsell

Duckert

, Relationship of Hearing Impairment to Dementia and Cognitive Dysfunction in Older Adults, Journal of the American Medical Association, 261, pp. 1916–1919, 1989.

15.

Neville

H. J.

, Developmental Specificity in Neurocognitive Development in Humans, in The Cognitive Neurosciences, Gazzaniga

M. S.

(ed.), MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 219–234, 1995.

16.

Neville

H. J.

Lawson

, Attention to Central and Peripheral Visual Space in a Movement Detection Task: An Event-Related Potential and Behavioral Study, II. Congenitally Deaf Adults, Brain Research, 405, pp. 268–283, 1987.

17.

Kaas

J. H.

, The Reorganization of Sensory and Motor Maps in Adult Mammals, in The Cognitive Neurosciences, Gazzaniga

M. S.

(ed.), MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 51–72, 1995.

18.

Kaas

J. H.

Merzenich

M. M.

Killackey

H. P.

, The Reorganization of Somatosensory Cortex following Peripheral Nerve Damage in Adult and Developing Mammals, Annual Review of Neuroscience, 6, pp. 325–356, 1983.

19.

Neville

H. J.

, Intermodal Competition and Compensation in Development: Evidence from Studies of the Visual System in Congenitally Deaf Adults, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 608, pp. 71–87, 1990.

20.

Giambra

L. M.

, The Influence of Aging on Spontaneous Shifts of Attention from External Stimuli to the Contents of Consciousness, Experimental Gerontology, 28, pp. 485–492, 1993.

21.

Giambra

L. M.

Grodsky

, The Influence of Age on the Frequency of Spontaneous Task-Unrelated Thought Intrusions during Reading, Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 11, pp. 367–379, 1991–92.

22.

Shaw

G. A.

Giambra

L. M.

, Task-Unrelated-Thoughts in College Students Diagnosed as Hyperactive in Childhood, Developmental Neuropsychology, 9, pp. 17–30, 1993.

Task-Unrelated Image and Thought Frequency during Chronic Auditory Sensory Deprivation: A Laboratory Study with the Severely Hearing-Impaired

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References