Readings

• Who are the authors of the article?

  Jane E. McNeil & Elizabeth K. Warrington
• What is prosopagnosia?

  A face-specific disorder affecting recognition

  
• What was the main finding regarding patient WJ?

  He recognized sheep better than human faces

  
• What does the term "double dissociation" refer to in the context of face perception?

  Different abilities to perceive unknown and familiar faces
• Who first described the syndrome of prosopagnosia?

  Bodamer
• What did Damasio and colleagues suggest about prosopagnosia?

  It may not be specific to human faces
• What are the two types of prosopagnosia proposed by De Renzi?

  Perceptual and mnestic prosopagnosia
• What is the significance of Case 4 in De Renzi's study?

  It showed a selective deficit for faces
• What did Davidoff argue regarding visual stimuli in prosopagnosia studies?

  They need to be equated for familiarity and difficulty
• What was the aim of the present study on prosopagnosia?

  To describe observations of a severe case

  
• What was WJ's profession before his stroke?

  Professional man
• What visual impairments did WJ have?

  Profound prosopagnosia and right homonymous hemianopia
• What did the scan reveal about WJ's brain?

  Low-density lesions in specific brain areas
• How did WJ perform on the WAIS Performance scale?

  He showed significant impairment
• What was WJ's score on the visual version of the Recognition Memory test?

  Chance level
• How did WJ perform on tests of shape detection?

  He performed normally
• What was WJ's ability to identify well-known faces?

  He identified only 2 out of 12 faces
• What did WJ use to identify faces he recognized?

  Deductive strategies
• What was the purpose of the Famous Face Familiarity experiment?

  To confirm WJ's poor face recognition abilities

  
• How did WJ perform on the famous face recognition test?

  His results were close to chance
• What was the outcome when WJ was asked to identify faces with names?

  His performance improved significantly

  
• What does the term "covert recognition" imply in WJ's case?

  He recognized faces without conscious awareness
• What was the aim of the Sheep Identification experiment?

  To test WJ's ability to recognize sheep

  
• How many sheep did WJ acquire for the study?

  36 sheep
• What method was used to identify the sheep in the experiment?

  Each sheep had a numbered tag
• How many sheep was WJ able to identify by number?

  8 out of 16 sheep
• What was the purpose of the Yes/No recognition test for sheep?

  To eliminate the need for number recall
• What was the presentation rate for the sheep photographs in the recognition test?

  3 seconds
• How many sheep photographs were re-photographed?

  16
• What was WJ's first task with the sheep photographs?

  To identify the number label of each sheep
• Why is WJ's identification of sheep numbers considered an underestimate?

  He often recognized sheep but forgot numbers

  
• What type of test was devised to assess WJ's recognition memory for sheep?

  A Yes/No recognition test

  
• How many photographs of sheep faces were presented to WJ in the recognition test?

  8

  
• What was the orienting task used in the recognition test?

  To determine if the sheep was pleasant or not
• How many distractors were included in the recognition memory test?

  8
• Who were the control subjects in the study?

  Two subjects with sheep experience and five matched controls
• What was the significant finding regarding WJ's performance on familiar versus unfamiliar sheep?

  WJ scored higher on familiar and unfamiliar sheep tests

  
• What was the outcome of the Wilcoxon test comparing controls' performance on unfamiliar faces versus unfamiliar sheep?

  Controls performed better on unfamiliar faces

  
• What was the mean percentage correct for WJ on familiar sheep recognition?

  100%
• What does WJ's performance on sheep recognition suggest about his abilities?

  He has a specific recognition problem with faces