INVESTIGATING FRAMES OF CONCEPTUAL REFERENCE SYSTEM IN INDIVIDUALS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS DURING ACTIVE EXPLORATION

This paper reports on the results from a series of experiments in the field of spatial coding in terms of different conceptual reference frames. The research objectives of the present study were the following: a. to describe the type of the conceptual reference frame that individuals with visual impairments use when they actively manipulate geometric shapes, and b. to explore relationships between type of geometric shape (two and three dimensional, simple or complex) and conceptual reference frame. Twelve individuals with total loss of vision (eight congenitally blind and four adventitiously blind) participated in the present study. All participants were asked to explore haptically by both hands two-and three dimensional shapes. The stimulus material was a wide range of simple and complex shapes (42 in total). The analysis of the data revealed that the participants who were blind from birth (congenitally blind) had the tendency to use a combined conceptual reference frame (allo-centric and ego-centric) to explore geometric shapes in contrast to the adventitiously blind who primarily based their active exploration on the allo-centric reference frame. In addition, the participants who were congenitally blind seemed to have a preference to ego-centric conceptual reference frames when the shapes were complex, whereas participants who were adventitiously blind adopted allocentric conceptual reference frames for all kinds of shapes. The discussion of the paper is focused: a. on the influence that previous visual experience of individuals with visual impairments may result in choosing the type of conceptual reference frame, and b. on the educational implications of the results.