Likova Lora T, Cacciamani Laura
The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, Ca, USA.
J Vis Impair Blind. 2018 Jul 1;112(4):385-397. doi: 10.1177/0145482x1811200405.
This study assessed whether basic spatial-cognitive abilities can be enhanced in people who are blind through transfer of learning from drawing training.
Near-body spatial-cognitive performance was assessed through the Cognitive Test for the Blind (CTB), which assesses a wide range of basic spatial-cognitive skills. The CTB was administered to 21 participants who are blind in two behavioral testing sessions separated by five days. For participants in the "trained" group, these intervening days were occupied by the Cognitive-Kinesthetic Drawing Training method, during which participants learned how to draw freehand from memory. The "control" participants were not trained.
The results showed significantly increased overall CTB performance in the trained but not in the control group, indicating that the drawing training effectively enhanced spatial-cognitive abilities. A three to six month follow-up session with a subset of trained participants suggested that these training-induced spatial-cognitive improvements might persist over time, at least for some tasks.
These findings demonstrate that learning to draw from memory without vision over just five sessions can lead to enhancement of basic spatial-cognitive abilities beyond the drawing task. This study is the first to examine the transfer of learning of cognitive ability in blind individuals.
This study sheds light on the Cognitive-Kinesthetic Drawing Training as an effective wide-range rehabilitation technique that could be used to enhance basic spatial-cognitive abilities in those who are blind.
本研究评估了盲人是否能够通过绘画训练的学习迁移来提高基本空间认知能力。
通过盲人认知测试（CTB）评估身体附近空间认知表现，该测试评估多种基本空间认知技能。对21名盲人参与者进行了CTB测试，分两个行为测试阶段进行，中间间隔五天。对于“训练”组的参与者，这五天时间用于认知动觉绘画训练方法，在此期间参与者学习如何凭记忆徒手绘画。“对照”组参与者未接受训练。
结果显示，训练组的CTB整体表现显著提高，而对照组则没有，这表明绘画训练有效地提高了空间认知能力。对一部分训练参与者进行的三到六个月的随访表明，这些因训练引起的空间认知改善可能会随着时间持续，至少对某些任务是这样。
这些发现表明，仅通过五次训练就学会在无视觉情况下凭记忆绘画，能够提高绘画任务之外的基本空间认知能力。本研究首次探讨了盲人认知能力学习的迁移。
本研究揭示了认知动觉绘画训练是一种有效的广泛康复技术，可用于提高盲人的基本空间认知能力。
