An investigation of two variables influencing Blissymbol learnability with nonhandicapped adults

Two variables, perceived translucency and component complexity, were hypothesized to influence the learnability of Blissymbols. Translucency was posited to facilitate symbol learning while component complexity was posited to retard learning. Results indicated that both of these hypotheses were confirmed. Additionally, results indicated that, for Bliss naive learners, translucency may be a more potent learnability variable than component complexity. Finally, translucency was found to most greatly affect Blissymbol learning in early rather than late learning trials. Results are discussed in terms of teaching Blissymbols to handicapped learners.