The influence of hereditary factor upon the development of thinking skills in confluence of the factors of manual asymmetry and hearing impairment

Sharova Svetlana Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0002-7740-1254 Educational Psychologist, College of Small Business No.4 115054, Russia, 115054 oblast', g. Moscow, Sadovnicheskaya street, 57A str.1, off. 202 bollane@list.ru

 Introduction

Modern psychology has accumulated a large number of studies of the effects of various factors on human cognitive development ^{[1, 2, 3, 6, 7]}. Special attention in sign language psychology is focused on the study of the mental development of younger schoolchildren and younger adolescents (L. S. Vygotsky, E. F. Rau, J. I. Shifa, N. V. Yashkova, L. I. Tigranova, T. V. Rozanova, N. F. Slezina, L. V. Zankov, R. Lindner, I. Vertes, F. Blair, E. Klapared, M. M. Nudelman, I. M. Soloviev, E. M. Kudryavtseva, M. V. Zvereva, M. I. Ushakova, E. G. Rechitskaya, E. A. Soshina, etc.) ^{[3, 4, 6, 7]}. In particular, there are a large number of works devoted to the study of creative and logical thinking of students with impaired hearing, the authors of which note a general decrease in the level of creative and logical thinking compared to normally hearing students. The main one in sign language psychology at the moment is the concept of T. G. Bogdanova ^[17], according to which, when studying the mental development of children with hearing impairments, it is necessary to pay close attention to the state of hearing of parents: normally hearing parents or parents with hearing impairments, because often the development of deaf children in families of deaf parents has its own characteristics. The development of such children differs from the development of deaf and hard of hearing children brought up in families of normally hearing parents.

There is also a significant number of studies of different types of thinking in people with left-handedness (M. M. Bezrukikh, A.V. Semenovich, T. A. Dobrokhotova, N. N. Bragina, A. P. Chuprikov, T. G. Wiesel, Yu. V. Mikadze, A. A. Hayrapetyants, A.V. Hryanin, B. V. Gurova, N. Y. Vlasova, N. N. Krasnova, O. B. Inshakova, K. M. Shipkova, I. V. Soboleva, L. G. Skoroletova, D. B. Dorzhneva, E. S. Naumova) ^{[1, 7, 9, 11, 14]}.  At the same time, the results of these studies are quite contradictory: some researchers note a lower level of thinking development in left–handed students, others - a higher level of development.

The subject of the study was the peculiarities of the development of creative and logical thinking of left-handed and right-handed students with impaired hearing, depending on the hearing condition of their parents.

The object of the study was to study the peculiarities of thinking of students with hearing impairment in families where parents have or do not have hearing impairment.

At the same time, recent research in sign language psychology focuses on the hearing condition of parents of students with hearing impairment, which revealed a higher development of cognitive processes in students raised in families where parents have hearing impairments. ^{[2, 3, 14]}

However, despite the fact that the number of left-handed students with hearing impairment is 10-12 % ^{[6, 7, 11]}, the problem of the combined effect of the factors of impaired hearing and manual asymmetry on the development of thinking of high school students in modern psychology is practically not considered. The role of hereditary factors in the development of the cognitive sphere with a combination of factors of impaired hearing and manual asymmetry is also not considered.

Taking this into account, the purpose of this work was to identify the combined effect of manual asymmetry and impaired hearing on the development of creative and logical thinking characteristics in students from families of hearing parents and families of parents with impaired hearing. The subject of the study was the study of the influence of the hereditary factor on the development of thinking characteristics with a combination of factors of manual asymmetry and impaired hearing.

Research hypotheses:

-right-handed students with impaired hearing, having parents with impaired hearing, the characteristics of logical and creative thinking will be higher than those of students from families of normally hearing parents;

- left-handed students from families of parents with hearing impairments will have different characteristics of creative and logical thinking.

 The novelty of the study is to conduct a comparative study of different types of thinking with a combination of manual asymmetry and impaired hearing under the influence of a hereditary factor: the state of hearing in parents. New data have been obtained on the peculiarities of the development of different types of thinking in right-handed and left-handed students from families of normally hearing parents and parents with hearing impairment.

Selection

An empirical study of the characteristics of thinking was conducted for 16 years (from 2002 to 2018 inclusive)  on the basis of the College of Small Business No. 4 in Moscow. The initial sample was 474 students. Students with combined disorders such as asthma, visual impairment, musculoskeletal disorders, diabetes mellitus and others were removed from this sample. The resulting sample, taking into account the analysis of the hearing status of parents, was 449 students with hearing impairment, of which 96 (21%) children were from families in which parents have hearing impairments (13 left-handed, 83 right-handed); 353 (79%) students were from families in which parents do not have hearing impairments (left-handed - 30, right-handed - 323). The age of the students ranged from 17 to 20 years, which is due to the prolongation of the education of children with hearing impairment in secondary school.  Students' hearing was assessed on the basis of audiograms. The state of hearing of parents was determined based on the study of personal files and questionnaires of students. In parallel with the general study, diagnostic monitoring of students was conducted when they completed test tasks.

Research methods and procedure

The main criteria for the selection of psychodiagnostic methods for the study were the peculiarities of the perception of verbal information by students with hearing impairment; the conformity of the methods to the age and individual characteristics of students with hearing impairment.

Due to the fact that students with impaired hearing have difficulties in understanding and assimilating verbal information, as well as due to the fact that within the framework of this work the emphasis was placed on the study of two types of thinking at once: logical and creative, methods with the absence or minimum of verbal information were used. If a student had questions when performing the techniques, the explanation was carried out by a psychologist in oral or oral-dactylic form for hard-of-hearing students; if the child did not understand, the explanation was repeated in sign language using calculating sign language.

To identify the leading hand of the subjects, a modified M. Annette test was used ^[11]. Based on the test results, all students were divided into 2 samples: "left-handed students" and "right-handed students", a sample of "hearing impaired students" was also created, which included both left-handed and right-handed students. According to the results of determining the leading hand, it was found that in the general sample, left–handed people made up 13%, and right-handed people made up 87%.

At the second stage, the analysis of personal files of students was carried out in order to determine the hearing condition of the parents of the examined. All parents were divided into 2 samples: "parents with preserved hearing", "parents with impaired hearing".

            To study the characteristics of creative thinking, a subtest of the E. Torrens figurative battery "Supplement the drawing" was used, which was fully adapted at the Faculty of Psychology of the St. Petersburg State University of Pedagogical Excellence under the guidance of E. E. Tunik on a Russian sample of 5-17 years. ^[10] The subject was offered a form with figures to be supplemented, a blank sheet of paper and instructions. The "Add a drawing" subtest evaluates 5 characteristics of creative thinking: fluency, originality, abstractness of names, elaboration, short circuit resistance. The raw balls received were converted into t-balls. The overall level of creative thinking was derived from the arithmetic mean of all 5 characteristics.

To assess the level of logical thinking, the "Culturally Free intelligence test" by R. Ketella was used.  This test has been tested for constructive validity (with the Binet test - 0.85, with the Wexler intelligence test – 0.84) and reliability (the reliability coefficient ranges from 0.71 to 0.91), which indicates the high validity and reliability of this technique.  The intelligence test of R. Ketell was standardized in the USA, England, Bulgaria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, but was practically not used in Russia. The technique of "Color progressive matrices J.Ravena" in the modification of T. V. Rozanova, which is used in special schools to identify the level of development of the cognitive sphere, is used mainly in elementary and high school, while the contingent of students surveyed in this work are young students, therefore, the use of this test in high school seemed inappropriate, since its results would not show the real level of development of logical thinking of students, and their training in the implementation of this test.

 The cultural-free intelligence test of R. Ketella consists of two parts, each of which has four subtests: "series" - recognition and continuation of regular changes in the rows of figures; "extra figure" - definition of an extra figure among the 5 presented; "classification" - definition of the features of figures; "conditions" - it is required to put a point in the same position as on the sample.  All tasks have a graphical form. The execution time of each subtest is limited, 40 minutes are given to complete the full test. R. Ketell suggests evaluating the level of logical thinking, calling the overall result of all series an intelligence coefficient. Students with impaired hearing perform only the first part of the test in the allotted time, the second part takes another 30 to 40 minutes to complete. Instructions are formulated in the stimulus material before each part of the methodology and before each subtest. First, the subject reads the instructions, if difficulties arise, the experimenter explains the unclear points to the subject with the help of oral speech or gestural calculating speech. Before starting to work with the test, the subject learns to solve problems from "Examples" together with the experimenter, while the explanation is based on calculating sign language, and then the subject is allowed to solve test problems in a given time interval. The test results are checked against the key. Then the number of correct answers for each test is calculated and their total amount in the first and second parts of the methodology. The sums of the scores of both parts are also added up, the result obtained is a raw score, which is translated into a standard IQ score using the age norms table. The average norm ranges from 90 to 110 points. Indicators above this level may indicate the giftedness of the subject, below it - a lag in mental development. The stimulus material of the culturally free intelligence test in graphic forms is presented in the form of A4 sheets.

Principles of analysis and interpretation of the received data

Statistical analysis of experimental data was carried out using the computer program SPSS 16 for Windows. When forming a database to facilitate processing, all non-quantitative data (leading hand, hearing condition, hearing condition of parents) were digitized. Quantitative data remained unchanged.

Since the samples are not equal in number due to the smaller number of left-handed people in the general population, nonparametric criteria that are not sensitive to the normal distribution were mainly used in data processing. When analyzing the results, the criterion of significance of average values was used – the Student's t-test for independent samples.

To determine the statistical relationships between some variables, Pearson's linear correlation coefficient, Spearman's correlation coefficient, CHI squared were used.

Description of the results with justification of their reliability and degree of scientific novelty

The analysis of personal affairs of students allowed to determine the state of hearing of parents. As can be seen from Figure 1, most of them are families in which parents do not have hearing impairments.

Fig. 1

The hearing condition of the parents of the examined contingent

In the course of the study, significant differences were found within the samples with a combination of factors of impaired hearing and manual asymmetry under the influence of a hereditary factor. Figure 2 shows the results of a study of logical thinking, called R. Ketell's intelligence coefficient, and the role of parents' hearing in a combination of factors of impaired hearing and manual asymmetry. At the same time, in the "left-handed students" group, 30% were brought up in families where parents have hearing impairments. In the "right-handed students" group, only 20% of students were brought up in families where parents have hearing impairments.

Fig. 2

The results of the study of the characteristics of logical thinking in left-handed and right-handed students with impaired hearing, depending on the hearing condition of their parents

As can be seen from Figure 2, right-handed and left-handed students with hearing impairment, who are brought up in families where parents have hearing impairments, have a higher level of logical thinking than students from families of normally hearing parents. At the same time, the difference between right-handed and left-handed is very clearly visible, which may indicate a decrease in the level of logical thinking in left-handed students with impaired hearing who are brought up in families of parents with preserved hearing. At the same time, left-handed students with hearing impairment who are brought up in families of hearing-impaired parents have a higher level of logical thinking than right-handed students with hearing impairment who have hearing-impaired parents. What can we say about the influence of the factor of heredity on the development of logical thinking: inaudible parents initially communicate with children in a language understandable to children, which contributes to the development of logical thinking.

Figure 3 shows the results of a study of logical thinking on a Culturally free intelligence test.

Fig.3

The results of the study of logical thinking on the Culturally free test R.Ketella

As can be seen from Figure 3, heredity by hearing gives an advantage in the development of logical thinking to right-handed and left-handed students, while the results of left-handed students are slightly higher than the results of right-handed ones in the case of hearing-impaired parents, and the opposite results in the case of parents with impaired hearing: left-handed children of normally hearing parents generally have lower logical thinking than right-handed children of unheard parents. During statistical data processing using the SPSS-16 program, no statistically significant differences in IQ level were found in the samples "parents with preserved hearing" and "parents with impaired hearing" (t = - 0.370 at p = 0.712). When analyzing the data using the X2 criterion, a weak correlation was revealed between the hearing state of parents and the IQ of students (r = 0.34 at p = 0.514). There was also a very low correlation between the hearing state of parents and the level of mathematical thinking of students (r = 0.085, p = 0.241)..

There were also significant differences within the samples with a combination of factors of impaired hearing and manual asymmetry under the influence of a hereditary factor. Figure 4 shows the results of a study of the characteristics of creative thinking in left-handed and right-handed students, depending on the state of hearing of their parents.

Fig. 4

The results of the study of the characteristics of creative thinking in left-handed and right-handed students with impaired hearing, depending on the hearing condition of their parents

As can be seen from Figure 4, creative thinking in left-handed students from families of normally hearing parents is higher than in left-handed students from families of hearing-impaired parents; at the same time, right-handed students from families of parents with impaired hearing have a higher level of creative thinking than in right-handed students from families of hearing parents.  The same trend can be traced when comparing the results of creative thinking of the general sample: the level of creative thinking is higher in students with impaired hearing from families of normally hearing parents. At the same time, when comparing left-handed students with right-handed students, it can be seen that their levels of creative development are "mirrored": right-handed students from families of parents with impaired hearing and left-handed students from families of parents with preserved hearing have higher results in terms of creative thinking than right-handed students from families of parents with preserved hearing and left-handed students from families with impaired hearing.  During statistical data processing using the SPSS-16 program, no statistically significant differences in the level of creative thinking were found in the samples "parents with preserved hearing" and "parents with impaired hearing" (t = - 0.896 at p = 0.377). When analyzing the data using the criterion X ², a weak correlation was revealed between the state of hearing in parents and the level of creative thinking of students (r = 0.005, p = 0.914). There was also a very low correlation between the state of hearing of parents and the level of mathematical thinking of students (r = 0.085, p = 0.241).

Figure 5 shows the results of creative thinking in the presence of hereditary hearing loss.

Fig.5

The results of the study of creative thinking according to the E.Torrens subtest

As can be seen in Figure 5, right-handed students from families of deaf parents have a generally higher level of creative thinking than right-handed students from families of normally hearing parents, which repeats patterns in the development of logical thinking. Left-handed students have a different pattern: left-handed students from families of deaf parents have a lower level of creative thinking than left-handed students of normally hearing parents. At the same time, when compared with the level of logical thinking, one can notice a decrease in the level of creative thinking, but an increase in logical thinking in left-handed people from families of the deaf.

Statistical data processing has shown that the results revealed between left-handed and right-handed students from families of normally hearing parents and from families of non-hearing parents are found at the trend level. No statistically significant relationship was found between the state of parents' hearing and the characteristics of logical and creative thinking. At the same time, a positive correlation was found between logical and creative thinking (r = 0, 197) at p < 0.01 (Pearson's criterion).

The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that:

1. The author's diagnostic tools are proposed to identify the leading hand in persons with impaired hearing.

2. The study shows the possibility of using the Cultural-free test of R. Kettel in relation to students with impaired hearing of adolescence. The study also tested the E. Torrens figurative battery on young students with impaired hearing, and also showed the possibility of using this technique by specialists in the psychological diagnosis of creative thinking in high school students with impaired hearing.

Conclusions

-right-handed students with impaired hearing, having parents with impaired hearing, have higher characteristics of logical and creative thinking than students from families of normally hearing parents;

- in left-handed students from families of parents with hearing impairments, the characteristics of creative thinking are higher with the preservation of hearing in the parents, and the characteristics of logical thinking are higher in the presence of impaired hearing in their parents.

- "mirroring" was found in the development of creative thinking in left-handed and right-handed students, depending on the state of hearing of parents;

- a weak correlation was found between logical and creative thinking at a high level of statistical significance.

Conclusion

The study revealed the following features of left-handed students: left-handed students from families of deaf parents have better developed logical thinking compared to left-handed students from families where parents normally hear; also, logical thinking in left-handed students from families of deaf parents is better developed compared to right-handed students from families of deaf parents, and from families of normally hearing parents. At the same time, creative thinking is better developed in left-handed students from families of normally hearing parents compared to right-handed students from families of hearing-impaired parents, parents with normal hearing, as well as compared to left-handed students from families of hearing-impaired parents. The results obtained may indicate different patterns of thinking formation in left-handed and right-handed students with impaired hearing.