Neuropsychological Components of Object Identification.
Abstract
The research supported by this grant focused on the structure of high-level visual processing. Five types of research were conducted: (1) We performed case studies of individual brain-damaged patients. We found evidence that curved edges are processed separately from straight edges and that location information sometimes can be used to encode some characteristics of shape. (2) We tested groups of brain-damaged patients with specific types of lesions. We found evidence that metric information may be used to encode spatial categories (such as above/below), and that imagery may involve some structures that are intact even when the visual field is disrupted. (3) We developed a computerized visual/spatial test battery, and administered it to a group of 19 brain-damaged patients. The results indicate that most of the visual/spatial abilities we examined can be impaired independently, suggesting that at least some distinct subsystems carry out each ability. (4) We implemented computer models and found support for the distinction between subsystems that compute two distinct kinds of spatial relations (metric and category). (5) Some of the tasks we developed to study deficits in brain-damaged patients were used to study the visual- spatial abilities of air force pilots; we found that pilots are particularly good at mental rotation and encoding metric distance information.... Neuropsychology, vision, computational models.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 29, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA261449
Entities
People
- Stephen M. Kosslyn
Organizations
- Harvard University