The effect of visual deprivation on the organization of conceptual knowledge: testing the grounded cognition hypothesis.

The present paper evaluates the effect of visual deprivation on the organization and retrieval of conceptual knowledge. The experimental study used the release from proactive interference (PI-release) paradigm. Early onset blind (EOB) and sighted (S) subjects were tested with this task and additional visual and nonvisual property retrieval cues. PI-release results showed that the visual cue was less effective for EOB individuals than for S individuals, whereas the nonvisual cue was similarly effective for EOB individuals and S individuals. Results support a grounded view of cognition where the organization of conceptual knowledge depends on the role that sensory and motor channels play in its acquisition.