This paper discusses the results of a study of 27 college students with deafness that investigated whether cognitive processes are modality dependent in individuals with deafness. The experiment included two separate parts, one composed of shape trials and the other composed of word trials. An initial stimulus was shown on a computer screen for two seconds. A two second retention period was followed by presentation of the test stimulus. Participants responded by pressing either the "Shift" key, to designate that they felt that the test stimulus included all the same shapes or shape words as the initial stimulus, or the "Option" key to designate that there was at least one different shape or shape word in the test stimulus. For initial and test stimuli in which the positions of shapes or words were the same, participants responded to the shapes more quickly when they appeared in an array than when they appeared in a linear format; however, results suggest subjects retained the word information in a sequential, sentence-like format. Strong readers performed better than weak readers on word stimuli. The study indicates that dual coding theory predictions hold for individuals with deafness. (CR)