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Representations in learning new faces: Evidence from prosopagnosia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2009

Michael R. Polster  and
Steven Z. Rapcsak
Michael R. Polster
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
Steven Z. Rapcsak
Affiliation:
Neurology Service, Tucson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Tucson, Arizona
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Abstract

We report the performance of a prosopagnosic patient on face learning tasks under different encoding instructions (i.e., levels of processing manipulations). R.J. performs at chance when given no encoding instructions or when given “shallow” encoding instructions to focus on facial features. By contrast, he performs relatively well with “deep” encoding instructions to rate faces in terms of personality traits or when provided with semantic and name information during the study phase. We propose that the improvement associated with deep encoding instructions may be related to the establishment of distinct visually derived and identity-specific semantic codes. The benefit associated with deep encoding in R.J., however, was found to be restricted to the specific view of the face presented at study and did not generalize to other views of the same face. These observations suggest that deep encoding instructions may enhance memory for concrete or pictorial representations of faces in patients with prosopagnosia, but that these patients cannot compensate for the inability to construct abstract structural codes that normally allow faces to be recognized from different orientations. We postulate further that R.J.'s poor performance on face learning tasks may be attributable to excessive reliance on a feature-based left hemisphere face processing system that operates primarily on view-specific representations. (JINS, 1996, 2, 240–248.)

Keywords

ProsopagnosiaFace learningLevels of processing
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , May 1996 , pp. 240 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 1996

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