Learning Bliss symbols via computer

Abstract

A multimedia system for teaching Blissymbols to the cerebral-palsied was developed and applied. It paired Blissymbols (B) with spoken words (S), pictures (P) and written words (W). The present paper is the first of a series. It describes the multimedia system and the complete rationale that underlies the two papers of the series. It assessed the relative efficacy of type of pairing (BS, BP, BW) during training and testing upon performance on both. It showed that, for both training and test, BS pairing resulted more effective than BP, and BP resulted more effective than BW in all indexes. It proposes that the advantage produced by the BS type of pairing derived from the fact that it involved two sensory modalities: visual and auditory. Taking advantage of Blissymbols’ recombinatory nature as a linguistic system, the second paper assessed carryover effects that were produced by the teaching of nouns upon both training and test performance on both verbs and modifiers, which were derived from those nouns. Together, the papers show that the multimedia system was effective in producing both direct and emergent performances. They also revealed how to better program training and test trials so as to achieve better performance more effectively.