Article comprehension check 3 Flashcards
what did boswell have?
Patient Boswell is a 63-year-old man who has been se-
verely amnesic for 15 years, following herpes simplex
encephalitis.
what happened to boswells face recog abilities
With regard to face recognition, Boswell has a severe
defect in the retrograde compartment, and he cannot
recognize faces of family members, long-time work as-
sociates, or even photographs of himself
what abt his skin conductance response
However, we
have shown that he does demonstrate electrodermal
(skin conductance) discrimination of highly familiar faces
from the retrograde compartment
hypothesis
We tested the hypothesis that Boswell is capable of ac-
quiring information about new persons, provided the
individuals are paired with a strong affective valence (the
operationalization of affective valence is explained be-
low)
Boswell’s “overt” recognition of these faces was tested
as follows
A. Identity recognition: Boswell was shown the
eight Professionals faces and the eight Caregivers
faces and asked to identify the person pictured.
1B. Verbal ratings: A verbal ratings experiment
was conducted for each of the two groups. For each
group, the eight targets (familiar faces) were mixed
with 30 nontargets (unfamiliar faces), and shown in
random order. Boswell was asked to rate the famil-
iarity of each face on a six-point rating scale, which
ranges from 1 (“definite familiarity”) to 6 (“definite
unfamiliarity”).
why are the current findings important
The current findings are important because they dem-
onstrate a form of learning that can occur without the
support of the hippocampus, related cortices (e.g., en-
torhinal and perirhinal), and amygdala