Tactile Short‐term Memory by Blind and Sighted Children

Four experiments are reported on effects of attention‐demanding and modality‐specific distractors on tactile recognition by blind and sighted children. Distractors produced significant response decrements by 9‐ to 10‐ and 5‐ to 7‐year‐olds. The effect was absent in one experiment in which the number of trials with each stimulus pair was restricted to a minimum. Modality‐specific effects were not found. Movement rehearsal did not facilitate responses. Distractors did not interact with delays beyond 5 sec. Length of delay produced response decrements by younger children; and by older subjects when distractor effects were absent. Immediate responses were faster and more accurate than responses under 5 sec. unfilled delay. Effects of distractors were similar for blind and sighted children. The blind were less accurate, but faster than the sighted. This did not interact with the distractor term. The results were consistent with a two‐process theory of tactile retention.