Abstract: Deaf individuals use sign language to communicate in daily life because of their hearing deficits, which provides us a special opportunity to explore the structure and function of the working memory system. Previous evidence suggests that the deaf population develops a sign-based rehearsal loop which is comparative in many respects to the phonological loop in the hearing population. Besides, the phonological loop can be accessed by the deaf population through oral training, suggesting that the deaf individuals can use speech-based coding to a certain extend. Hearing speakers and deaf sign language users have comparable working memory resources during language use. But the resources will be restricted by the visual modality. More and more evidence provided supports to the compensatory theory, i.e., the use of sign language improves spatial abilities of the deaf.

Key words: deaf, working memory, sign language, phonological loop, sign-based rehearsal loop