Cognitive characteristics of skilled tactiling: The case of GS

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Abstract
In a case study, the cognitive characteristics of a person (GS), who is extremely proficient in visual speech-reading with tactile support, was investigated. His method of “tactiling” involves placing his palm on the speaker's shoulder and his thumb on the neck/collar-bone. By this method he is able to pick up prosodic elements of speech, and in speech-reading of meaningful materials in particular, such as “tracking” of connected discourse (De-Filippo & Scott, 1978), he is outstanding. Compared to an age-matched control group, GS can be characterised as having (a) normal short-term memory for simple forms of testing, but vastly superior skills for complex working memory functions, (b) excellent verbal inference-making skills and (c) normal access speed in various lexical aspects of his long-term memory. It was concluded that when tactiling, GS is endowed with cognitive skills that promote perception of higher-order meaning units, which can be effectively handled in working memory by means of flexible, intelligent guesswork. The clinical implications of this study are also addressed.

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