Semantic organization in deaf and hearing subjects.

Hierarchial cluster analysis of data from the sorting of noun words was used to compare semantic structures in 63 profoundly deaf and 63 hearing adolescents. In the first study, performance differed only for a set of words referring to sounds, where deaf persons have no experience, and not for a set of common noun words and pictures. In the second study, differences between matched sets of high- and low-imaginary words were comparable for 63 deaf and 63 hearing subjects. It is concluded that deaf subjects manifested abstract hierarchical relations and were not dependent on "visual mediators" or hindered by the absence of "acoustic mediators".