Perceptunl and Motor Skills, 1975,40, 631-635.
@ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1975
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VERBAL ORIGINALITY IN DEAF AND HEARING CHILDREN1 ROGER A. J O H N S O W
Old Dominion University
AND
JOE KHATENA Marshall University
Summary.-Verbal originality scores were obtained from Onomatopoeia and Images, Form lB, given to 18 1 deaf and 236 hearing Ss aged 1 0 to 1 9 yr. The hearing Ss scored significantly higher than the deaf Ss. Significant main effects for age were found but not for sex. The only significant interaction was found for hearing starus and age. Deaf Ss became more productive as age increased, while performance of hearing Ss relative to age fluctuated.
Verbal originality is defined as " t h e power of the imagination to break away from perceptual set so as to restructure or structure anew ideas, thoughts, and feelings into novel and meaningful associative bonds" (Khatena & Torrance, 1973, p. 2 8 ) . There is little information on performance of deaf Ss on measures of creative thinking. With a sample of only 11 Ss, Pang and Horrocks (1968) found that deaf and hearing Ss scored approximately the same on all subcests of Thinking Creatively Wich Pictures, Form A (Torrance, 1966). When Kaltsounis (1970a, 1970b) compared deaf and hearing elementary school Ss, deaf Ss scored significantly higher on all subtests of Thinking Creatively Wich Pictures, Form A (Torrance, 1966) and significantly higher on fluency and originality and the same on the flexibility subtests of Thinking Creatively With Words, Form A (Torrance, 1966). Deaf Ss scored significantly higher as their grade level increased, while hearing Ss were less likely to score higher with increase in grade. A gap in knowledge concerns how deaf Ss scored compared with hearing Ss on a measure which required them to respond to stimuli with sound components that are expected to evoke responses. Therefore, the primary purpose of the study was to assess possible differences between deaf and hearing Ss on the Onomatopoeia and Images (Khatena & Torrance, 1973). A less important purpose was to examine developmental patterns of verbal originality of deaf and hearing Ss aged 10 to 19 yr. and to observe sex differences or interactions. This test presents onomatopoeic words to which the listener is asked to respond in an original manner. Both the sound and the meaning of the words are supposed to help Ss break away from the former perceptual set and produce uncommon responses. It is hypothesized that deaf Ss would score significantly lower than hearing Ss because of their inability to respond to the sound components of the words. 'This paper was supported by the Old Dominion University Research Foundation. Congruent with grant requirements, Ss were debriefed after the sessions. 'Requests for reprints should be sent to Roger A. Johnson, College of Education, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23508.
632
R. A. JOHNSON & J. KHATENA
METHOD Design and Subjects An ex post facto design was employed (Ary, Jacobs, & Razavieh, 1972) with Ss tested as intact groups and no attempts to match Ss or to assign Ss randomly to treatment groups. The data were analyzed using a weighted means analysis and a 2 X 2 X 8 factorial analysis of variance (Winer, 1962), with hearing stacus, sex, and eight age levels the independent variables. Ss were 181 deaf and 236 hearing children. The deaf Ss (89 males and 92 females) were drawn from two schools for the deaf in the Southeast and were 10 to 19 yr., non-mentally retarded, and from families with incomes in the middle to low range. Most of the deaf Ss were deaf since birth and 98% were classified as severely to profoundly deaf, i.e., they did not benefit from hearing aids. The 236 hearing Ss (96 males and 140 females) were drawn from eight Tidewater, Virginia public schools on the basis of availability, and were 10 to 19 yr., non-mentally retarded, and from families with incomes in the middle to low range. Inst~umentand Test Administration Form 1B of Onomatopoeia and Images (Torrance, Khatena, & Cunnington, 1973) was used as the criterion measure, and was administered to both hearing and deaf Ss by playing a recorded text in which a narrator gave the necessary instructions and read a list of five words with 30-sec. pauses between words. Each word was repeated four times. Before and after each reading the narrator urged Ss to be as imaginative and original in their responses as possible. The words on Form 1B are "ouch, groan, jingle, zoom, and fizzy." A non-test atmosphere was created in which Ss were encouraged to enjoy themselves by letting their imagination run wild and then to write these new ideas down on a sheet of paper. E tested all of the deaf Ss and one-half of the hearing Ss; the other one-half of the hearing Ss were tested by 4 graduate students who had been trained for this task by E. Data for deaf Ss were collected by E and two additional examiners who were selected because of their outstanding ability to communicate with deaf children. The examiners were given special training in creative thinking and test administration by E and were assisted in communicating the test instructions by classroom teachers, guidance counselors, librarians, and administrators who had been briefed on the nature of the research and on their specific task of communicating the test instructions. Everyone involved in the experiment except E were trained in total communication and were skilled, helpful, and cooperative in explaining the test instructions and the word stimuli. Total communication is one method of communicating with deaf Ss which involves maximum sensory input, i.e., lip reading, natural gestures, sign language, finger spelling, speaking in a normal voice, and writing words on a blackboard (Berg & Fletcher, 1970).
VERBAL O R l G I N A L l n OF DEAF AND HEARING CHILDREN
633
The deaf Ss received the instructions on the record from the examiner who used total communication to translate the instructions. However, the record was stopped before Ss were asked to respond to the onomatopoeic words, and the examiner and the educators spent approximately 15 min. working with individual Ss and/or with small groups explaining the nature of the task There was one adult skilled in communication present for every five Ss. In addition, after each presentation of the onomatopoeic words, the record was again stopped and the instructions encouraging Ss to "let your imagination help you think of even more interesting and unusual pictures to write about than before" were emphasized. Although the communication of che record was done without any time constraints, the time for responding to each onomatopoeic word was controlled by the narrator on the record and thus the response time for both the hearing and the deaf was identical. Scoring of the responses was done on a scale of 0 to 4 credits according to the infrequency and relevance with 4 credits being awarded for the response showing chat break away from perceptual set has occurred. The tests were scored by E and an undergraduate education major; interscorer reliability coefficient of .95 was obtained. A reliability coefficient of .92 ( p < .01) was obtained between alternate forms of Onomatopoeia and Images. Validity is satisfactory with low correlations obtained between scores and measures of intelligence and significant correlations between Onomatopoeia and Images and creative thinking measures such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Khatena & Torrance, 1973).
RESULTSAND DISCUSSION Means, standard deviations, and observed values of F are shown in Table 1. Inspection of the table shows that the hearing Ss scored much higher than the deaf Ss, that females scored slightly higher than males, and thac scores of Ss varied with their ages. The factors were subjected to an analysis of variance to determine if the observed mean differences were significant and to examine possible interaction effects. There was a main effect for hearing- status with the hearing Ss scoring significantly higher on verbal originality than the deaf Ss. N o main effect for sex occurred. The only significant interaction was hearing stacus with age; deaf Ss scored higher as their ages increased, while the scores of the hearing Ss fluctuated. There was a main effect for age indicating that one or more of the age levels were different from one another. The results of a Newman-Keuls multiple-comparison test are depicted in Table 2 according to Winer's (1962) presentation of means suggestion. The age levels are ordered from lowest to highest on the Onomatopoeia and Images p scores. Inspection of the table indicates thac Ss aged 10-11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 yr. did not differ, Ss aged 17 and 18-19 yr. did not differ, Ss aged 10-11, 13, 16, 18-19 yr. did not differ, nor did Ss aged 10-11, 17, 18-19 yr.
R.A. JOHNSON & J. KHATENA TABLE 1
MEANS,STANDARDDEVIATIONS AND OBSERVEDVALUES OF F ON ONOMATOPOEIA AND IMAGES Factors
Levels
Hearing Status
n
M
SD
df
F
P
Deaf Hearing Male Female
Sex
13 14 15
16 17 18-19
Hearing Status-Age Hearing Status-Sex Sex-Age
Onomatopoeia and Images differs from traditional measures of creative thinking in that the onomatopoeic words set up a cognitive-emotional interaction resulting in the production of non-sound images in response to sound stimuli. Therefore, with this emphasis on the auditory-visual modality of creative mental functioning, the finding that the deaf scored significantly lower than the hearing was expected and supports the proposition of Khatena and Torrance (1973) that the onomatopoeic words generated original responses by both their meaning and sound.
SUMMARY
OF
TABLE 2 COMPARISONSBY AGE O F DEAFAND HEARING
CHILDREN ON ONOMATOPOEIA AND IMAGES Ordered Ages (yr.)
Note.-Ages
sharing a rule are nor different ( f i
< .01).
The significant interaction between hearing status and age, and the finding that the deaf Ss achieved higher scores as their ages increased, while the scores of the hearing Ss fluctuated, was in accordance with the findings of Kaltsounis (1970a, 1970b). The lack of any main effect for sex was in agreement
VERBAL 0RlGlNALll-Y OF DEAF AND HEARING CHILDREN
635
with the findings of Kaltsounis (1970a) and Piers, Daniels, and Quackenbush
(1960). These findings should be considered tentative in view of non-random sampling, possible translation and institutional effects, and a lack of control over intelligence. Further research is needed to correct these limitations. REFERENCES ARY, D.. JACOBS, L. C., & RAZAVIEH, A. Introduction to research i n edi~cation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972. BERG,F. S., & FLETCHER, S. G. T h e hard of hearing child. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1970. KALTSOUNIS, B. Comparative study of creativity in deaf and hearing children. Child Study Journal, 1970, 1. 11-19. ( a ) KALTSOUNIS, B. Differences in verbal creative thinking abilities between deaf and hearing children. Psychological Reports, 1970, 26, 727-733. (b) KHATENA. J.. 8r TORRANCE. E. P. Thinking Creatively W i t h Sounds and Words: normstechnical manual. Lexington, Mass.: Personnel Press, 1973. PANG, H., & HORROCKS, C. An exploratory study of creativity in deaf children. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1968, 27, 844-846. PIERS,E.. DANIELS, J., & QUACKENBUSH, J. The identification of creativity in adolescents. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1960, 5 1 , 346-351. TORRANCE, E. P. T h e Torrance Tests o f Cseative Thinking: norms-technical manual. Lexington, Mass.: Personnel Press, 1966. TORRANCE, E. P., KHATENA, J., & CUNNINGTON, X. Thinking creatively with sounds and words. Lexington, Mass. : Personnel Press, 1973. WINER,B. J. Statistical principles i n experimen!al design. New York: McGraw-Hill,
1962. Accepted January 28, 1975.
@ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1975
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VERBAL ORIGINALITY IN DEAF AND HEARING CHILDREN1 ROGER A. J O H N S O W
Old Dominion University
AND
JOE KHATENA Marshall University
Summary.-Verbal originality scores were obtained from Onomatopoeia and Images, Form lB, given to 18 1 deaf and 236 hearing Ss aged 1 0 to 1 9 yr. The hearing Ss scored significantly higher than the deaf Ss. Significant main effects for age were found but not for sex. The only significant interaction was found for hearing starus and age. Deaf Ss became more productive as age increased, while performance of hearing Ss relative to age fluctuated.
Verbal originality is defined as " t h e power of the imagination to break away from perceptual set so as to restructure or structure anew ideas, thoughts, and feelings into novel and meaningful associative bonds" (Khatena & Torrance, 1973, p. 2 8 ) . There is little information on performance of deaf Ss on measures of creative thinking. With a sample of only 11 Ss, Pang and Horrocks (1968) found that deaf and hearing Ss scored approximately the same on all subcests of Thinking Creatively Wich Pictures, Form A (Torrance, 1966). When Kaltsounis (1970a, 1970b) compared deaf and hearing elementary school Ss, deaf Ss scored significantly higher on all subtests of Thinking Creatively Wich Pictures, Form A (Torrance, 1966) and significantly higher on fluency and originality and the same on the flexibility subtests of Thinking Creatively With Words, Form A (Torrance, 1966). Deaf Ss scored significantly higher as their grade level increased, while hearing Ss were less likely to score higher with increase in grade. A gap in knowledge concerns how deaf Ss scored compared with hearing Ss on a measure which required them to respond to stimuli with sound components that are expected to evoke responses. Therefore, the primary purpose of the study was to assess possible differences between deaf and hearing Ss on the Onomatopoeia and Images (Khatena & Torrance, 1973). A less important purpose was to examine developmental patterns of verbal originality of deaf and hearing Ss aged 10 to 19 yr. and to observe sex differences or interactions. This test presents onomatopoeic words to which the listener is asked to respond in an original manner. Both the sound and the meaning of the words are supposed to help Ss break away from the former perceptual set and produce uncommon responses. It is hypothesized that deaf Ss would score significantly lower than hearing Ss because of their inability to respond to the sound components of the words. 'This paper was supported by the Old Dominion University Research Foundation. Congruent with grant requirements, Ss were debriefed after the sessions. 'Requests for reprints should be sent to Roger A. Johnson, College of Education, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23508.
632
R. A. JOHNSON & J. KHATENA
METHOD Design and Subjects An ex post facto design was employed (Ary, Jacobs, & Razavieh, 1972) with Ss tested as intact groups and no attempts to match Ss or to assign Ss randomly to treatment groups. The data were analyzed using a weighted means analysis and a 2 X 2 X 8 factorial analysis of variance (Winer, 1962), with hearing stacus, sex, and eight age levels the independent variables. Ss were 181 deaf and 236 hearing children. The deaf Ss (89 males and 92 females) were drawn from two schools for the deaf in the Southeast and were 10 to 19 yr., non-mentally retarded, and from families with incomes in the middle to low range. Most of the deaf Ss were deaf since birth and 98% were classified as severely to profoundly deaf, i.e., they did not benefit from hearing aids. The 236 hearing Ss (96 males and 140 females) were drawn from eight Tidewater, Virginia public schools on the basis of availability, and were 10 to 19 yr., non-mentally retarded, and from families with incomes in the middle to low range. Inst~umentand Test Administration Form 1B of Onomatopoeia and Images (Torrance, Khatena, & Cunnington, 1973) was used as the criterion measure, and was administered to both hearing and deaf Ss by playing a recorded text in which a narrator gave the necessary instructions and read a list of five words with 30-sec. pauses between words. Each word was repeated four times. Before and after each reading the narrator urged Ss to be as imaginative and original in their responses as possible. The words on Form 1B are "ouch, groan, jingle, zoom, and fizzy." A non-test atmosphere was created in which Ss were encouraged to enjoy themselves by letting their imagination run wild and then to write these new ideas down on a sheet of paper. E tested all of the deaf Ss and one-half of the hearing Ss; the other one-half of the hearing Ss were tested by 4 graduate students who had been trained for this task by E. Data for deaf Ss were collected by E and two additional examiners who were selected because of their outstanding ability to communicate with deaf children. The examiners were given special training in creative thinking and test administration by E and were assisted in communicating the test instructions by classroom teachers, guidance counselors, librarians, and administrators who had been briefed on the nature of the research and on their specific task of communicating the test instructions. Everyone involved in the experiment except E were trained in total communication and were skilled, helpful, and cooperative in explaining the test instructions and the word stimuli. Total communication is one method of communicating with deaf Ss which involves maximum sensory input, i.e., lip reading, natural gestures, sign language, finger spelling, speaking in a normal voice, and writing words on a blackboard (Berg & Fletcher, 1970).
VERBAL O R l G I N A L l n OF DEAF AND HEARING CHILDREN
633
The deaf Ss received the instructions on the record from the examiner who used total communication to translate the instructions. However, the record was stopped before Ss were asked to respond to the onomatopoeic words, and the examiner and the educators spent approximately 15 min. working with individual Ss and/or with small groups explaining the nature of the task There was one adult skilled in communication present for every five Ss. In addition, after each presentation of the onomatopoeic words, the record was again stopped and the instructions encouraging Ss to "let your imagination help you think of even more interesting and unusual pictures to write about than before" were emphasized. Although the communication of che record was done without any time constraints, the time for responding to each onomatopoeic word was controlled by the narrator on the record and thus the response time for both the hearing and the deaf was identical. Scoring of the responses was done on a scale of 0 to 4 credits according to the infrequency and relevance with 4 credits being awarded for the response showing chat break away from perceptual set has occurred. The tests were scored by E and an undergraduate education major; interscorer reliability coefficient of .95 was obtained. A reliability coefficient of .92 ( p < .01) was obtained between alternate forms of Onomatopoeia and Images. Validity is satisfactory with low correlations obtained between scores and measures of intelligence and significant correlations between Onomatopoeia and Images and creative thinking measures such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Khatena & Torrance, 1973).
RESULTSAND DISCUSSION Means, standard deviations, and observed values of F are shown in Table 1. Inspection of the table shows that the hearing Ss scored much higher than the deaf Ss, that females scored slightly higher than males, and thac scores of Ss varied with their ages. The factors were subjected to an analysis of variance to determine if the observed mean differences were significant and to examine possible interaction effects. There was a main effect for hearing- status with the hearing Ss scoring significantly higher on verbal originality than the deaf Ss. N o main effect for sex occurred. The only significant interaction was hearing stacus with age; deaf Ss scored higher as their ages increased, while the scores of the hearing Ss fluctuated. There was a main effect for age indicating that one or more of the age levels were different from one another. The results of a Newman-Keuls multiple-comparison test are depicted in Table 2 according to Winer's (1962) presentation of means suggestion. The age levels are ordered from lowest to highest on the Onomatopoeia and Images p scores. Inspection of the table indicates thac Ss aged 10-11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 yr. did not differ, Ss aged 17 and 18-19 yr. did not differ, Ss aged 10-11, 13, 16, 18-19 yr. did not differ, nor did Ss aged 10-11, 17, 18-19 yr.
R.A. JOHNSON & J. KHATENA TABLE 1
MEANS,STANDARDDEVIATIONS AND OBSERVEDVALUES OF F ON ONOMATOPOEIA AND IMAGES Factors
Levels
Hearing Status
n
M
SD
df
F
P
Deaf Hearing Male Female
Sex
13 14 15
16 17 18-19
Hearing Status-Age Hearing Status-Sex Sex-Age
Onomatopoeia and Images differs from traditional measures of creative thinking in that the onomatopoeic words set up a cognitive-emotional interaction resulting in the production of non-sound images in response to sound stimuli. Therefore, with this emphasis on the auditory-visual modality of creative mental functioning, the finding that the deaf scored significantly lower than the hearing was expected and supports the proposition of Khatena and Torrance (1973) that the onomatopoeic words generated original responses by both their meaning and sound.
SUMMARY
OF
TABLE 2 COMPARISONSBY AGE O F DEAFAND HEARING
CHILDREN ON ONOMATOPOEIA AND IMAGES Ordered Ages (yr.)
Note.-Ages
sharing a rule are nor different ( f i
< .01).
The significant interaction between hearing status and age, and the finding that the deaf Ss achieved higher scores as their ages increased, while the scores of the hearing Ss fluctuated, was in accordance with the findings of Kaltsounis (1970a, 1970b). The lack of any main effect for sex was in agreement
VERBAL 0RlGlNALll-Y OF DEAF AND HEARING CHILDREN
635
with the findings of Kaltsounis (1970a) and Piers, Daniels, and Quackenbush
(1960). These findings should be considered tentative in view of non-random sampling, possible translation and institutional effects, and a lack of control over intelligence. Further research is needed to correct these limitations. REFERENCES ARY, D.. JACOBS, L. C., & RAZAVIEH, A. Introduction to research i n edi~cation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972. BERG,F. S., & FLETCHER, S. G. T h e hard of hearing child. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1970. KALTSOUNIS, B. Comparative study of creativity in deaf and hearing children. Child Study Journal, 1970, 1. 11-19. ( a ) KALTSOUNIS, B. Differences in verbal creative thinking abilities between deaf and hearing children. Psychological Reports, 1970, 26, 727-733. (b) KHATENA. J.. 8r TORRANCE. E. P. Thinking Creatively W i t h Sounds and Words: normstechnical manual. Lexington, Mass.: Personnel Press, 1973. PANG, H., & HORROCKS, C. An exploratory study of creativity in deaf children. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1968, 27, 844-846. PIERS,E.. DANIELS, J., & QUACKENBUSH, J. The identification of creativity in adolescents. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1960, 5 1 , 346-351. TORRANCE, E. P. T h e Torrance Tests o f Cseative Thinking: norms-technical manual. Lexington, Mass.: Personnel Press, 1966. TORRANCE, E. P., KHATENA, J., & CUNNINGTON, X. Thinking creatively with sounds and words. Lexington, Mass. : Personnel Press, 1973. WINER,B. J. Statistical principles i n experimen!al design. New York: McGraw-Hill,
1962. Accepted January 28, 1975.
