Memory for Proper Names


Book Description

This special issue brings together studies that analyse the nature of retrieval failure for proper names and evaluate whether a common memory system can adequately account for the representation and retrieval of both proper and common names.




Developmental Cognitive Neuropsychology


Book Description

How independent are different cognitive skills during development? Is the modularity seen in the studies of adult neuropsychology disorders mirrored by modularity in development? Are developmental neuropsychological disorders explicable against cognitive models? What restrictions are there to developmental plasticity? How many routes are there to competence? Is there a single developmental pathway? What do disorders of cognitive development tell us about normal developmental processes? These are some of the questions addressed by this text. In certain cognitive domains, such as the analysis of reading and spelling disorders, the field is well developed, with extensive studies of the development of dyslexias and dysgraphias. In other areas, such as the analysis of perceptual spatial disorders, pertinant studies are beginning, as in the analysis of developmental face recognition disorders, and the exploration of spatial disorders of Williams' syndrome. In these areas, interesting routes for future inquiry are also evident. The text of this book is organized around seven key cognitive areas, within which the developmental disorders are addressed in turn: language, memory, perception, reading, spelling, arithmetic and executive skills. The first three of this list may be considered the core areas of cognition; the second three involve specific cultural transmission in their acquisition; and the third, concerns higher order processes. The major emphasis of the text is upon developmental rather than acquired disorders. Throughout, case studies are used to convey an impression of the cases themselves, and to illustrate how dissociations in performance are displayed.




The Cognitive Psychology of Proper Names


Book Description

It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't remember her name." Lots of people have difficulty remembering people's names, even though they can easily recall other information about the person. As memory and retrieval processes are central to cognitive psychology and neuropsychology the study of proper names makes a fascinating and practical focus of study. Using an information processing approach, Valentine, Brennen and Bredart consider evidence from speech production, face recognition and word recognition to develop a new functional model of the production and recognition of people's names. This book will be valuable to all those studying cognitive psychology, cognitive neuropsychology and linguistics. It makes a suitalbe text for higher level undergraduates and postgraduates and those engaged in research.




Face Processing


Book Description

'Face Processing' seeks to answer questions such as how we recognise familiar faces, and which factors determine facial attractiveness. Drawing on a wealth of studies and research, it is an essential companion for undergraduates studying face processing as part of a psychology degree.




The Neuropsychology of High-level Vision


Book Description

This book provides a state-of-the-art review of high-level vision and the brain. Topics covered include object representation and recognition, category-specific visual knowledge, perceptual processes in reading, top-down processes in vision -- including attention and mental imagery -- and the relations between vision and conscious awareness. Each chapter includes a tutorial overview emphasizing the current state of knowledge and outstanding theoretical issues in the authors' area of research, along with a more in-depth report of an illustrative research project in the same area. The editors and contributors to this volume are among the most respected figures in the field of neuropsychology and perception, making the work presented here a standard-setting text and reference in that area.




Patient-based Approaches to Cognitive Neuroscience


Book Description

Part I covers the history, principles, and methods of patient-based neuroscience: lesion method, imaging, computational modeling, and anatomy. Part II covers perception and vision: sensory agnosias, disorders of body perception, attention and neglect, disorders of perception and awareness, and misidentification syndromes. Part III covers language: aphasia, language disorders in children, specific language impairments, developmental dyslexia, acquired reading disorders, and agraphia. Part IV covers memory: amnesia and semantic memory impairments. Part V covers higher cognitive functions: frontal lobes, callosal disconnection (split brain), skilled movement disorders, acalculia, dementia, delirium, and degenerative conditions including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease.




Memory in Everyday Life


Book Description

The last decade has seen a major growth in research on how memory is used in everyday life. This volume represents a reaction to traditional laboratory-bound studies of the first half of the century which sought to identify the fundamental principles of learning and memory through the use of materials and methods totally divorced from the real world. The new wave of memory research has had considerable success in charting how memory develops, the role it plays in educational and social skills and the impact of memory impairment on mental life. The current volume consists of authoritative reviews of this emerging area linked to comment and criticism from major researchers in the field.Contrasted, probably for the first time, are two major styles of research in applied memory research: The naturalistic approach, which has sought to study memory in everyday environments, using actual experiences from people's lives as the raw data from which to derive more general principles, and the applied cognitive approach, whereby theories and methods are developed using orthodox laboratory techniques which are then validated by applying them directly to real phenomena. This is one of the few books to bring together evidence across the very wide spectrum of humdrum activity that constitutes the everyday uses of memory.




Cognitive Psychology


Book Description

This fifth edition of the best-selling international cognitive psychology textbook has been substantially updated and restructured to reflect new developments in cognitive psychology, and made more student-friendly. Established approaches covered in depth include: Experimental cognitive psychology Cognitive science with its focus on modelling Cognitive neuropsychology with its focus on cognition following brain damage. Extensive new material in this edition includes: Cognitive neuroscience approaches such as brain scanning and imaging studies which illustrate the principles of brain function New material on consciousness. Throughout, the new material is fully integrated with more traditional approaches to create a comprehensive, coherent and totally current overview of perception, attention, memory, concepts, language, problem solving, judgement and reasoning. A two-colour design, plus a rich array of supplementary multimedia materials, make this edition more accessible and entertaining for students. The multimedia materials include: A PowerPoint lecture course and MCQ Test Bank free to qualifying adopters A unique web-based Student Learning Program. This is an interactive revision program incorporating a rich array of multimedia resources including interactive exercises and demonstrations, and active reference links to journal articles. This is offered on a subscription basis to departments adopting the text. A free demonstration of a sample chapter is available to potential subscribers at http: //www.psypress.com/ek5/ .




Facing the Other: Novel Theories and Methods in Face Perception Research


Book Description

We rely heavily on faces during social interactions. Humans possess the ability to recognise thousands of people very quickly and accurately without effort. The serious social difficulties that follow abnormalities of the face recognition system (i.e., prosopagnosia) strongly underline the importance of typical face skills in our everyday life. Over the last fifty years, research on prosopagnosia, along with research in the healthy population, has provided insights into the cognitive and neural features behind typical face recognition. This has also been achieved thanks to non-invasive neuroimaging techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Electroencephalography (EEG), Magnetoencephalography (MEG), Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). However, there is still much debate about the cognitive and neural mechanisms of face perception. In the current “Research Topic” we plan to gather experimental works, opinions, commentaries, mini-reviews and reviews that focus on new or novel theories and methods in face perception research. Where is the field at the moment? Do we need to re-think the experimental procedures we have adopted so far? Again, what kind of techniques (or combination of them) and analysis methods will be important in the future? From the experimental point of view we encourage both behavioural and neuroimaging contributions (e.g., fMRI, EEG, MEG, DTI and TMS). Despite the main emphasis on face perception, memory and identification, we will also consider original works that focus on other aspects of face processing, such as expression recognition, attractiveness judgments and face imagery. In addition, animal investigations and experimental manipulations that alter face recognition abilities in typical human subjects (e.g., hypnosis) are also welcome. Overall, we are proposing a Research Topic that looks at face processing using different perspectives and welcome contributions from different domains such as psychology, neurology, neuroscience, cognitive science and philosophy. The current “Research Topic” evolved over the desire to acknowledge the relatively recent loss of three giants in the field: Drs. Shlomo Bentin, Truett Allison and Andy Calder. We dedicate this “Research Topic” to them and their pioneering studies.




Face Perception


Book Description

Human faces are unique biological structures that convey a complex variety of important social messages. Even strangers can tell things from our faces – our feelings, our locus of attention, something of what we are saying, our age, sex and ethnic group, whether they find us attractive. In recent years there has been genuine progress in understanding how our brains derive all these different messages from faces and what can happen when one or other of the structures involved is damaged. Face Perception provides an up-to-date, integrative summary by two authors who have helped develop and shape the field over the past 30 years. It encompasses topics as diverse as the visual information our brains can exploit when we look at faces, whether prejudicial attitudes can affect how we see faces, and how people with neurodevelopmental disorders see faces. The material is digested and summarised in a way that is accessible to students, within a structure that focuses on the different things we can do with faces. It offers a compelling synthesis of behavioural, neuropsychological and cognitive neuroscience approaches to develop a distinctive point of view of the area. The book concludes by reviewing what is known about the development of face processing and re-examines the question of what makes faces ‘special’. Written in a clear and accessible style, this is invaluable reading for all students and researchers interested in studying face perception and social cognition.