kitchen table math, the sequel: Working memory and the blind

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Working memory and the blind

We are talking about the huge swaths of children labelled "learning disabled" who can't read, but what about the actually disabled who learn anyway?

How do the blind learn to read, or compute, or do any of the tasks we think of as reading/writing/math?

Has anyone ever read anthing about the cognitive workings of the blind?

I increase my working memory by writing things down on paper and looking at what I've written.

How do they maintain working memory? Are the brilliant scholars who are blind particularly adept at maintaing working memory using braille? or do they just have fantastically larger working memory than the rest of us? How do they organize their working memory--do they do it "visually" to some degree? Or do they use other senses somehow? Is their auditory loop for working memory MUCH larger than mine, e.g.?

Anyone ever read any research on this? Or even any anecdotal memoirs?

2 comments:

Catherine Johnson said...

wow - great question.

Catherine Johnson said...

Allison - you MUST read Tony Judt's short piece on his experience of ALS. He says his memory is vastly improved because he can't write anything down.

I'll find the link and post later on.