Folklore has long held that blind people gain, relative to normal people, in their sensitivity to other sensory modalities. Although supported only by equivocal evidence, this position probably first appeared in mythology in early Greek literature. Oedipus Rex was attributed greater awareness of people’s nature after this blindness. It is still a prevalent myth in contemporary American culture, to the extent that it appears in “Little Orphan Annie.” Experimental attempts at verification of this point began several years ago, but it remains a controversial issue. Literature on the topic can be divided up into several content areas: the relevance of blindness to auditory sensitivity, the relevance of blindness to tactile sensitivity, the developmental effect of blindness and central vs. peripheral blindness and it affects perception. Studies sampled there represent these content areas.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pacific.edu/oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-2809 |
| Date | 01 January 1973 |
| Creators | Claiborn, James Malcolm |
| Publisher | Scholarly Commons |
| Source Sets | University of the Pacific |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations |
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