Rigidity and isolation: a study of the deaf and the blind.

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Abstract
Observations suggest that the blind suffer from physical isolation and that the deaf suffer even more from mental and social isolation. The effects of isolation on rigidity were studied in 25 deaf, 25 blind, and 25 normal children (ages 10 to 15), equated for intelligence on appropriate parts of the Wechsler scale. Exp. I: When shown how to model clay balls, sticks and canes, the blind children persisted most rigidly in the routine task; the deaf became satiated almost as rapidly as normals, but continued free modeling over twice as long. Exp. II. On a level of aspiration test, blind and normals reacted similarly, but the deaf were more rigid. Exp. III. In reclassifying 25 blocks, only 4 deaf children succeeded, whereas all of the blind and normals did so. Exp. IV. On the Rorschach test, deaf subjects gave only one third as many responses as normals, with many W, F and FM responses and little differentiation. All experiments showed rigidity associated with isolation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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