Face Recognition and Modularity Flashcards
How is perception an inference and how does it connect to the concept of modularity?
An example:
you illusory percept of a and b as differing in luminance
1. depends on the inferences that are rapidly and automatically generated
2. cannot be undone by simply knowing and believing that the percept is illusory
What is modularity?
arises from the idea that the brain can function as a computer
-a module is a function that you can call over and over again to perform a certain set of tasks
What does luminance perception appear to assume?
-there is a single light source
-light is uniformly distributed
-solid objects cast shadows
What are the assumptions of luminance built into and what do they affect?
these assumptions are built into the way the perceptual system makes inferences about luminance and reflectance when given luminance
What do the assumptions made about luminance constitute?
domain specific knowledge and that is applied to these computations
What happens when light hits your eye a certain way?
there is an inferential process and the light is hitting your eye in a certain way and it is hitting a system which has assumptions built into it about light sources and shadows and light distribution
What did fodor advocate for in modularity of mind?
that these inferences are being carried out by modules
-that cognitive functions are independent of one another
What are some key features of modules?
-fast and automatic
-domain specific
-informationally encapsulated - cannot think your way out of a module and information cannot link between modules
-innate
What is a recurring debate in cognitive neuroscience about functional modules?
whether functional modules are a good descriptions of the functions of anatomically defines areas
-can we take functions and impose them onto anatomy
What are the three major points to consider when considering the debate over face perception and modularity?
- The FFA, domain specificity, perceptual expertise, and interactive specialization
- viewpoint invariant identification of faces from face patches in macaques
- computational models of face representations
What is interactive specialization in face perception?
the fact tat faces are special and one of the few objects you can tell thousands apart - so maybe the expertise from experience is important npt the domain specialization
What are the evolutionary arguments for face processing?
-recognizing conspecifics (kin, in group members, etc) is important for survival in social species
-faces convey emotional information
-other primates seem to process faces in a way that is different from the way they process objects
What is the computational argument for why there might be a module for face processing?
-faces cannot be recognized in the way other objects seem to be - when we see a face there is a processed triggered where we know who that is in parallel and can recognize them whereas with objects we look at the parts of an object and then determine what that object is rather than the whole object coming together and meaning something or someone like a face does
What evidence is there for a module for face processing?
is face idenitfication fast an automatic - yes
How quickly can we recongize individuals from images?
within 75 ms
Is face identification informationally encapsulated?
this is a harder questions with less data but knowing about an optical illusion does not help you unsee it which means you need to switch in and out of different processing modes
Does face identification depend on domain specific knowledge?
-a very controversial question - we process face stimuli differently when they are upside down than right side up
-critically if you model face recognition as recognition by components it does not work well
-the role of configural information in face processing and how it might be related to other parts
In the left hemisphere there is an analogous area to the FFA for recognizing text so when you flip words upside down what happens?
you have to go letter by letter and slow you down when reading it which makes you memorize it cause the harder the stimuli the more likely you will memorize it
If you do a lexical decision task and you increase the length of the words what happens to the speed at which you process stimuli?
there is no relation to length meaning you process stimuli of varying lenght the same meaning you do not go letter by letter when reocngizing words
If you do a lexical decision task and you increase the length of the words and happen to flip the orientation of the letters what happens to the speed at which you process stimuli?
then a linear process arises where it takes longer for longer words which means you do end up going letter by letter
What part of the brain is thought to be important for word recongition?
left fusiform gyrus
Where would a module for face processing live in the brain anatomically speaking?
-the candidate face area is part of the ventral visual stream
- a portion of the fusiform gyrus specifically in the right hemipshere is sometimes called as the fusiform face area or ffa
-ventral poriton of the temporal cortex right before you transition from temporal to occipital lobe
What is the double dissociation between the dorsal and ventral streams in the visual system?
patients with damage to the dorsal stream like RV have little difficulty in identifying objects but when asked to grasp or manipulate them they show deficits in using an objects shape to generate a motor plan
Where did initial evidence that the right fusiform plays an important role in face perception come from?
-patients who exhibit prosopagnosia
-these patients have impaired face recognition but not object recognition (i.e. the man who mistook his wife for a hat)
-they had a lesion in the ffa or fusiform gyrus
What is an example of the double dissociation between face and object recognition?
-patients who exhibit prosopagnosia
-these patients have impaired face recognition but not object recognition
-but agnosics have difficulty with objects but not faces (i.e. DF had object recognition issues but could recognize faces)
What is the hughlings Jackson problem and how did it affect how we evaluate the role of the FFA in speech?
hughlings jackson - to locate the damage which destroys speech and to locate speech are two different things
-just because damage to the right fusiform disrupts face processing does not mean it is responsible for face recognition it could simply be a chain in the face recongition process - every method used to investigate human condition has some very substantial limits so start to believe a story when you see evidence confirming from neuropsychology in agreement with fmri data or or behavioral data