Abstract
The purpose of this study was to study the rate of correct-response and the tendency of incorrect-response in the presentation of fingerspelling. Fingerspelling was presented one letter at a time. There were three conditions of the time of presentation: SLOW (0.67sec/letter), NORMAL (0.33sec/letter), FAST(0.20sec/letter). Subjects were divided in to 3 groups: T group (the students of T-school for the deaf), U-High-Ability group (the students of U-University with normal hearings who have been learning fingerspelling for more than 18 months), and U-Low-Ability group (the students of U-University with normal hearing who have been learning fingerspelling for less than 6 months). The subjects responded in the written syllabary after five seconds of fingerspelling. The results were as follows: (1) The rate of correct-response was high in the following order: SLOW-NORMAL-FAST-conditions, and T-U-High-Ability-U-Low-Ability group. In the Slow-condition, no significant difference was found between the three groups which suggests that 0.67 seconds is long enough for the reading of finger-spelling even for the less-experienced subjects. But when the time of presentation of fingerspelling was shorter than that in the SLOW-condition, the length of experience of fingerspelling or the age at which learning began seemed to influence the intelligibility of fingerspelling. (2) The tendency of incorrect-response: The shape and direction of fingerspelling seemed to influence the tendency of incorrect-response. Pairs of stimuli and incorrect-response seemed to have some particular characteristics in many cases; the directions were the same and/or the shapes were similiar. This means that such pairs of fingerspelling were formed by adding or reducing one finger. It was concluded that the factors of shape and direction, the time of presentation, the age learning began length of experience influence the intelligibility of fingerspelling.
