The ability to interpret social signs by individuals with intellectual disturbance

Belimova Polina Andreevna ORCID: 0000-0001-8581-4924 Graduate Student at the Department of Psychology, Saint-Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Universitetskaya Nab., 7-9 belimova_polina@mail.ru

Adaptation of persons with intellectual disabilities in the public environment

Social adaptation is a critically important component in maintaining the quality of life. The characteristics of the adaptation barrier depend on the individual psychological characteristics of the individual and environmental factors. Communicative stress of social genesis has significantly affected the social adaptation of various population groups due to the spread of COVID-19 ^[1]. 

Persons with disabilities become the most vulnerable group in the context of social adaptation. Violations of physical and cognitive development are the reasons for limiting a person's involvement in a full-fledged social life due to the incomplete formation of a system of measures aimed at meeting the special needs of this group. For example, studies of social and nonverbal learning disorders have shown that documented damage to the right hemisphere can lead to a lack of social skills, prosody, difficulties in spatial orientation and recognition of nonverbal signals ^[2]. There is evidence that social maladaptation may be associated with alexithymia – difficulty in identifying and understanding subjective emotional experiences ^{[3, 4]}.

Life competencies are a priority in the training of persons with intellectual disabilities, since they increase the level of independence and personal satisfaction of a person in situations of everyday life and social interaction ^[5]. The peculiarities of the cognitive sphere of this group are the subject of study for identifying and implementing the most effective tools for teaching public communication.

Steadily reduced learning ability is one of the key characteristics of the cognitive sphere of students with intellectual disabilities. In foreign clinical practice, the limitation in cognition of the surrounding world corresponds to the term "mental disturbances". This concept is associated with the fixation of low values of intelligence quotient (IQ), social maladaptation and dysfunction of cognitive processes. This definition includes the concept of impaired social functioning of a person with a low IQ ^[6].

The urban environment, public and private buildings often represent barriers that prevent people with disabilities from exercising independent social mobility, moving freely and independently ^[7]. Over the past decade, many studies have been conducted on the study and development of software and devices designed to improve the quality of life of these users when moving around the urban environment in the context of extrapolation of intellectual mobility to the adoption of landmarks of accessibility of the urban environment ^{[8, 9]}. Various approaches to adaptive navigation search focused on vital aspects of citizens' needs are presented with visual impairments and mobility limitations ^{[10, 11]}. In the scientific literature devoted to accessibility and adaptation of the environment for people with disabilities, the contexts of the use of additional communication in outdoor conditions and premises are considered ^[12].

At the same time, there is a shortage of research papers devoted to the accessibility of public space for persons with intellectual disabilities. Of particular interest in this area is the study of aspects of the perception of public signs as navigational aids intended for orientation in public space. When studying the problem of perception of public signs by persons with intellectual disabilities, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of their cognitive sphere.

Visual perception with impaired intelligence

The perception of visual information as a component of the public communicative field is of interest in the context of the peculiarities of the implementation of cognitive functions. Written text is not considered as an effective means of communication for disorders such as dyslexia and intellectual disabilities, and mastering the reading skill is available for these groups with the condition of using special pedagogical approaches ^{[13, 14]}. For example, students with dyslexia are characterized by a longer duration of reading the text and a greater number of fixations on the text, which reflects a higher cognitive load when perceiving written speech ^[15]. Reading skills in most cases are characterized by underdevelopment. These students, in comparison with their normotypic peers, significantly lag behind the ability to understand and comprehend what they read ^[16]. Studies devoted to the perception of tests and graphic images show that in the presence of intellectual impairment, difficulties arise when performing tasks for grouping and classifying the depicted objects, establishing logical connections between them and clarifying the differences between the image of an object and its name ^[17].

Over the past decades, empirical data on the specifics of the perception of the surrounding world by people with intellectual disabilities have been obtained in interdisciplinary research. In 1963, K.I. Veresotskaya showed that the success of recognition of visual objects depends on the time spent on perception ^[18]. Among the characteristic features of perception in intellectual disorders, such aspects as narrowed volume, slowness, weak differentiation are noted ^[19]. The cognitive sphere of persons with intellectual disabilities is characterized by inactivity of perception associated with the weakness of the motivational component ^[20]. Difficulties in spatial orientation, establishing causal relationships, analyzing the perspective of images and movement are common in this group of subjects ^[21]. From the point of view of cognitive processes related to learning, the peculiarities of perception with a decrease in the level of intellectual development can be explained by a limited amount of short-term and long-term memory ^[22].

Studies using the method of oculography have shown that when viewing visual stimuli, there is a shorter duration of gaze fixations and a greater number of them ^[23]. In a sample of 120 students of general education and correctional schools, a significantly significant difference was demonstrated in the success of decoding public signs in the group with intellectual impairment compared to peers with normative intelligence, while special decoding difficulties related to the signs "Toilet" and "No exit" ^[24].

Thus, an urgent research task is to identify the peculiarities of perception and interpretation of public signs in order to identify the most effective learning strategies, as well as to create a more accessible social environment for people with a reduced level of intellectual development.

Research methods and groups of examined

           To study the ability of students with intellectual disabilities to correctly interpret public signs, a stimulus material was developed, including 11 signs of public spaces standardized according to GOST ISO 3864-1-2013. Individual signs have been visually modified to ensure that they do not comply with the specified standard. The order of options for presenting answers for each slide was randomized randomly.

           The total number of study participants was 184 people aged 14-15 years. The control group included 92 senior secondary school students, and the experimental group consisted of 92 subjects with intellectual disabilities who studied at a specialized school for children with a clinical diagnosis of ICD–10 "F70 – mild mental retardation".

Results of an empirical study

When comparing the responses of subjects with different levels of intellectual development, it was found that students with normative intelligence cope better with the task of correctly interpreting social signs, U(182) = 3251, p = 0.005, ES = 0.232.

The interpretations of the individual signs examined with intellectual impairment were analyzed in private. Statistical analysis showed that there are statistically significant differences in the number of correct responses to the "No way out" stimulus t(181) = -3.763, p < 0.001, d = -0.5548. High school students with intellectual disabilities gave fewer correct answers to this stimulus, which may indicate that adding an additional symbol in the form of a crossed-out circle complicates the interpretation of the sign, since the informative part of the "Exit" sign is closed) (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. The "No way out" incentive (the "correct" answer is 3). From left to right: the content of the stimulus; the frequency of choice of response options by the subjects from the group of high school students with intellectual disabilities.

Presumably, the visual load of the "No exit" sign determines the fact that the "Exit" sign is not readable against the background of the crossed-out circle. It is worth noting that the original sign "Exit" as one of the most common in the public environment was provided to the subjects as a training incentive and did not cause difficulties in interpretation. Thus, the partial closure of the sign "Exit" worsens its perception and interpretation in a group of children with a clinical diagnosis of "mild mental retardation".  Frequency analysis showed the prevalence of "correct" responses in this group at a high level of statistical significance, ?2 (2) = 10.2, p = 0.006.

The visual stimulus "Bicycle" refers to non-standardized signs, that is, it does not meet the requirements of GOST ISO 3864-1-2013. It has a diamond-shaped shape. For this reason, it is impossible to single out an unambiguously correct or incorrect answer in its relation. However, in accordance with the hypothesis that the yellow color is perceived as a warning in road traffic conditions, the option "Caution, bike" can be considered as a conditionally "correct" answer (Fig. 2).

Figure 1. The "Bicycle" incentive. From left to right: the content of the stimulus; the frequency of choice of response options by subjects with intellectual disabilities.

The Student's criterion for two independent samples shows that there are no statistically significant differences in the number of correct responses to the "Bicycle" stimulus between the control and experimental groups, namely t(181) = 0.987, p =0.325, d = 0.146. Frequency analysis showed a predominance of incorrect responses in the group of high school students with intellectual disabilities at a low at the level of statistical significance, ?2 (2) = 7.93, p = 0.019. Approximately the same ratio of responses of subjects with intellectual disabilities between the interpretation options "Bicycle parking" and "Caution, bike" suggests that yellow is not perceived as a warning and is not identified as an indicator of danger.

Discussion of the results

The results of the study showed that the ability to interpret social signs in students with intellectual disabilities significantly differs from peers with a normative level of intelligence. In general, the process of decoding public signs is caused by a large number of incorrect interpretations in a group of students with intellectual disabilities. At the same time, when analyzing responses to individual stimuli, differences in the number of correct responses were found when decoding only one sign ("No way out"). There were no significant differences in the correct interpretations of other social signs between the control and experimental groups. The results described in the article echo an earlier study conducted on a smaller sample ^[24].

The results obtained may be related to the study of social signs in the framework of the educational program for children with intellectual disabilities, which provides for emphasis on the formation of adaptation skills in a social environment. A significant role in the success of the interpretation of social signs is played by learning, that is, the indirect memorization of the designation of a sign in the educational process.

The visual component of the sign can affect the effectiveness of its perception and decoding. The sign "There is no way out" has an increased cognitive load due to the details of the visual stimulus, which, according to the results of the survey, complicates the understanding of its intended purpose in conditions of movement of people in public places.

It is well known that the yellow color is considered as a warning symbol when studying the basics of traffic rules. It was supposed to reveal this analogy by the example of the use of four stimuli that will simplify the task of decoding signs of the public environment for persons with intellectual disabilities.  In this case, the experimental material would be identified by them as warning of danger. However, this effect was not detected in both groups of the surveyed high school students.

The results of the study made it possible to note that the design of public signs should take into account the natural combination of color and shape, fit into the general system of iconic public navigation, while maintaining the simplicity of image forms in order to correctly interpret them by persons with intellectual disabilities. Taking into account these requirements for the visual design of textbooks, auxiliary materials, as well as navigation inside correctional schools, will increase the effectiveness of training and the formation of social functioning skills of students of special educational institutions.