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11 Cards in this Set

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Case Studies of Prosopagnosia
AO1 Key Feature 1
Description of Case Studies of Prosopagnosia

Busigny (2010) - PS, 50 year old woman damaged occipital and temporal lobes in both hemispheres following bus accident. She was unable to recognise familiar faces, even her own, in photos BUT she could recognise people from peripheral details like voice. She had no problems recognising objects.
Delvenne (2004) NS, 40 year old man damaged temporal occipital junction after cycling accident. He was unable to recognise faces or objects.
Other cases such as Mr.W, have some ability with face recognition - he couldn't recognise the faces of people but could recognise his cows and dogs.

Case Studies of Prosopagnosia
AO2 Criticism 1
Good things about Case Studies of Prosopagnosia

+Case studies have been very useful is helping our understanding of how FR works and has contributed greatly to the development of theories such as B&Y's theory.

Case Studies of Prosopagnosia
AO2 Criticism 2
Bad things about Case Studies of Prosopagnosia

- Tend to be those with ACQUIRED Proso. Each individual may have different areas/amounts of brain damage which makes it difficult to generalise about which parts of the brain link to which FR.
- Unclear from case studies if the FFA is RESPONSIBLE for FR or just a RELAY and so damage here effects FR.
- Cases tend to have general cognitive impairments which slow down processes such as FR.
- Cases tend to have developed ways to recognise people, such as voices, which may mask the full extent of their FR problems.

Case Studies of Prosopagnosia
IDA Criticism 1
Ethical Issues

+ Although by studying Prosopag. many individuals have received reassurance that this is a serious issue and that 'they are not alone' there are significant ethical considerations.
- Using initials to safeguard confidentiality of identity only offers some protection.
- Individuals with Proso. are a 'vulnerable' group, so should be be subjecting them to hours of intensive research. It is very important that these individuals really do understand and have the ability to exercise their right to withdraw.

Explanations of Prosopagnosia
AO1 Key Feature 1
Acquired and Developmental

Most knowledge about Proso. is derived from those who have suffered from brain damage and hence have ACQUIRED Proso. Some individuals may inherit a gene which causes DEVELOPMENTAL Proso. Duchaine (2006) estimates 2% of the gen.pop. have DEVELOPMENTAL Proso. Two explanations have been proposed to explain Proso. 1) that it is a specialised function (FFA) 2) that it is no different to other object recognition.

Explanations of Prosopagnosia
AO1 Key Feature 2
Damage to the FUSIFORM FACE AREA (FFA)

Since the use of brain scans, comparison of individuals with acquired Proso. suggests there is a specific part of the brain that is responsible for FR. The case of PS had specific damage to the FFA and occipital lobes in the right hemi. and was unable to recognise faces, even her own.

Explanations of Prosopagnosia
AO2 Criticism 1
Evidence for&against the role of the FFA

+ Garrido (2009) found weaker activation in the FFA of 17 individuals with DEVELOPMENTAL Proso.
- Most cases of Proso. have problems with BOTH face and object recognition. Humphreys & Riddoch suggest FR is not unique, but that faces are really just complex objects, which is why we find individuals with FR problems AND object recog. problems BUT not vice versa.

Explanations of Prosopagnosia
AO1 Key Feature 3
Holistic processing

Farah (1991) proposes that there is a continuum of agnosias such as object recognition, alexia and proso. At one end of the continuum lies problems decoding structure, at the other end lies problems assessing the relationships between components (holistic processing). Proso is an example of holistic processing failure.

Explanations of Prosopagnosia
AO2 Criticism 1
Evidence for&against Holisitic processing

+ Busigny (2010) reported many cases of Proso. were not susceptible to the inversion effect.
- Busigny (2011) assessed PS and found her global functioning was still intact, and wasn't a failure of holistic processing.

Case Studies and Explanations of Prosopagnosia
AO2 Overarching criticsm
Helpful in support of B&Y's theory

Many cases of Proso. have been helpful in supporting B&Y's theory of FR, such as CB who could say if a face was familiar or not but was unable to name them or give any personal information.

Case Studies and Explanations of Prosopagnosia
IDA Criticsm 2
Nature vs. Nurture

Studying Developmental Proso. could be especially beneficial in assessing the degree to which perception is an innate ability or one which we develop. if we are able to identify a gene which determines deficits in FR, we might then be able to investigate if other features of perception are affected by genes.