PSYC 336 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Neuroimaging, Facial Recognition System, Prosopagnosia

• School: University of San Diego
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 336
• Professor: Appleton-Knapp

Document Summary

Face recognition is strongly dependent on orientation. Ffa (fusiform face area) is specifically responsive for faces. Recognition of faces really is in a category by itself. B other types of recognition (+faces) are special in the same way. Ex. bird-watcher with prosopagnosia can"t distinguish warblers. Ex. person with prosopagnosia can"t tell cars apart. Produce high levels of activation in the ffa. Neural tissue specialized for faces isn"t used only for faces. Controversial topic: how do we describe this system. Key point of agreement face recognition is achieved by a process that"s different from the process described earlier in this chapter. Face recognition doesn"t depend on the individual parts of the face. A process in which the ability to identify an object depends on the whole. Face recognition depends on the face"s overall configuration. Ex. spacing of eyes, height of forehead relative to the face width. The relationship between features guide face recognition.