Understanding Prosopagnosia: The Face Blindness Phenomenon

759 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Case studies on prosopagnosia

“Only the other day, I was at a residential conference where I’d eaten breakfast with a group of fellow participants. I went back to my bedroom before heading to the auditorium. Plonking myself down next to a stranger, I smiled, stuck out my hand and said, ‘Hi. I’m Mary Ann Sieghart.’ ‘I know,’ he replied. ‘We’ve just spent the past half hour talking to each other.’” Many people have had an experience like this where they have failed to recognize someone they have met before, sometimes on several occasions, or an experience where they know they’ve heard a name before, but can not place a face to match it. For some, like Mary Ann Sieghart, this is not simply because they are bad with faces, but because they have a condition called prosopagnosia.

Show More
Related

  • Psychological research shows that eyewitness testimony is not always accurate, therefore it should not be used in the criminal justice system. Dis...

    1751 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Accuracy-confidence correlation: an eye witnesses’ stated confidence is not a good predictor of identification accuracy; Stress effects: highly stressful situations may make an experience seem especially vivid, but such stressors can reduce the ability to recall details about a person’s face…Cross-race bias: eye witnesses are more accurate at identifying members of their own race than members of other races.”

    Read More

  • John Perry's Dialogue On Personal Identity And Imorality?

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    Weirob also argues against Cohen’s view. She states that, the woman after surgery may have false belief, which means she actually is Mary but she thinks herself is Julia. For example, some people with mental disease may have illusion that they have other identities or even think they are other creatures, which are false belief that people may have. As an onlooker, we know the idea and concept in psychopaths’ mind are false beliefs. However as patients themselves, the “false beliefs” are their whole understanding of self and world. Therefore, the idea of mind is imperfect to define personal identity as

    Read More

  • Glaucoma Essay

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    Glaucoma is a disease of the eye and it is fluid pressure within the eye rises and if the eye is left untreated the patient might lose vision or maybe even blind. But this disease is generally affects both eyes but although one of their eyes may have more severe signs or symptoms then the other eye. When you have glaucoma there are small spaces in the front of the eye and they are called anterior chamber. There is clear liquid that flows in and out of the anterior chamber and the fluid nourishes and bathes nearby the tissues. And if the patient has glaucoma the fluid dose not drain like it should drain but the fluid drains out of the eye. And this may lead to fluid build up and pressure inside the rises of the eye. Unless the pressure is brought down and controlled and the optic nerves and some of the other parts of the eye might become damaged leading to ...

    Read More

  • Theme Of Job History And The Open Boat By Annie Proulx

    933 Words  | 2 Pages

    Annie Proulx’s “Job History” and “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane contain faceless characters. The characters in both stories do not have any personality in them. Annie Proulx and Stephen Crane create these characters with two different story techniques. Their characters do not appeal to the empathy of the reader because the reader is prevented from having an emotional connection with them thus, inducing the facelessness of the characters.

    Read More

  • The Foundation of My Identity

    2053 Words  | 5 Pages

    Among carpenters, it is a well-known fact that building a house upon a solid foundation is imperative. When beginning the construction of a home, the foundation is always the first step leading to success, for without it, the house will become unstable. During extreme weather, such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other conditions, a slight fault in the foundation of a home will most likely guarantee significant damage, if not complete destruction. Similar to a house, a person’s identity must rest upon a firm foundation; otherwise, it may not be capable of withstanding the ominous conditions of the world. When trials and burdens threaten to crumble people’s identities, their foundations must stand their ground and overcome the various tribulations. Although there are billions of inhabitants of the world, no two people share the same identity; rather, each person has unique memories, stories, events, and artifacts influencing who they have become. Some people’s identities may reflect a difficult childhood of discrimination, poverty, and hatred similar to the one described by Malcolm X in his article, “Nightmare.” Other people may associate with Katie Pederson and her article, “Identity,” in which they are defined through a simple artifact such as an identification card. In addition, numerous unfortunate people may struggle from the devastating effects of memory loss similar to those Floyd Skloot experienced, and they are helpless as their memories and identity slowly slip away from them. Still other people may find themselves desperately searching for acceptance and identity similar to the homeless man in Gina Berriault’s article, “Who Is It Can Tell Me Who I Am.” Unlike the homeless man and Malcolm X, I was fortuna...

    Read More

  • Different Theories of Inattentional Blindness

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    Processing capacity is a very broad and flexible category according to many researchers. In fact, the quote above mentioned suggests that we often fail to notice things that happen just in front of us (unexpected events that are often salient) either because we were completely absorbed by something else or because we had so many things to do at the same time that we couldn’t pay attention to it. We have all at least once failed to see a friend who was waving at us while eating in the cafeteria or walking in a crowded street. The primary question that we should ask ourselves is: how many things can we attend at the same time? The truth is that we didn’t perceive this friend because of a phenomenon called “inattentional blindness”. The problem is that the richness of our visual experience leads us to believe that our visual representation will include and preserve the same amount of detail (Levin et al 2000). In this paper we’ll see the different theories of inattentional blindness, and the classical theories demonstrating this paradigm.

    Read More

  • Aphasia Essay

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    The neuroanatomical approach to aphasia relies on the localization of lesions on the brain in addition to clinical observation in order to classify patients according to syndromes. For example, according to the neuroanatomical approach, Broca’s aphasia, which us usually associated with a lesions on the posterior inferior frontal gyrus of the brain, has cardinal features that distinguish is from other fluent and non-fluent aphasias (e.g. poor repetition, poor repetition and poor naming with good auditory comprehension).

    Read More

  • Lucy's Autobiography Of A Face

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people have different perceptions of suffering. Some of them see sickness and trauma as the main causes of sorrow and anguish in a person’s life. Rarely does a person think that one’s physical appearance can be a cause of sorrow and misery. This is Lucy’s story. She recounts the events of her life in her book Autobiography of a Face. She developed cancer as a young child, and this forced her to undergo surgery and numerous sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She had to endure numerous stares and insults from other people. This was a trying time for the young girl considering what she had to undergo. However, it did not compare to her later years. She spent countless hours in hospitals trying to get the perfect face. She did not want to be different from everyone else. In the end, she realized that the beauty and satisfaction that she was looking for were deeper within her. She could not get what she was looking for in the mirror or in the approval of others. To Lucy, being different from others was worse than the cancer she had. Despite the numerous challenges she faced, Lucy remained resilient.

    Read More

  • Progeria Syndrome Essay

    1759 Words  | 4 Pages

    The human genome is a remarkable system composed of over 3 billion DNA base pairs that encode for the characteristics that makes people distinctly human and unique themselves. Without the genome’s nearly flawless ability to self-replicate the human species would cease to exist. As incredible as this replication methodology is, it is not without its faults. Genetic mutations, though rare and typically harmless, can strike at any time and in various ways. Still, when they do cause harm the effects can be profound and impossible to ignore. Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) is an instance where the mutation of just one nucleotide has devastating results. The Mayo Clinic defines progeria as a progressive genetic disorder that causes children to age rapidly, beginning in their first two years of life. This study defines the disease of progeria by outlining symptoms and identifying causes that lead to its diagnosis. In addition, treatment methods and extensive research that give those affected by the disease hope for a brighter future are highlighted.

    Read More

  • Synaesthesia Essay

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    Webster dictionary defines synaesthesia as “a subjective sensation or image of a sense other than the one being stimulated” (Wyld,1963). Synaesthesia is a condition that causes someone to have associations of usually color with certain everyday things, such as numbers or letters. There are several different types of synaesthesia that will be discussed in this paper digit-color synaesthesia, odor-color synaesthesia, and person- and music-color synaesthesia. A common effect that is discussed when talking about synaesthesia is the McCollough effect. This effect is a wonder of humans and their visual perception where colorless gratings appear to have a color.

    Read More

  • Synaesthesia Essay

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most of the population doesn’t get a certain taste in their mouth when we hear a certain music note and we don’t see certain letters in colors. But for people with forms of synaesthesia, they experience many of these mixing of senses. Typically synaesthesia starts in early childhood and is consistent as the person ages. It is known that the experiences occur with no conscious effort. There are two common forms of synaesthesia, color–graphemic synaesthesia, where specific numbers and letters or words, written and/or spoken, provoking a reaction to seeing different colors. And the second being, color–phonemic synaesthesia, the spoken form. There are reports that state that there are many types of inducers (the stimulus that triggers the synaesthetic experience) and concurrent (the synaesthetic experience itself).

    Read More

  • Aphasia: A Mental Disease

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many mental diseases in the world. In this paper we will be talking about a mental disease called Aphasia. We will explore what Aphasia is. We will find out how someone is diagnosed with Aphasia. We will learn the different types and treatments for this type of mental disease.

    Read More

  • Essay On Rational Community

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    This face of the other, the stranger serves as an “indicative surface” to us. Lingis (1994) states “The face of another is a surface upon which one senses directions and directives that order me; w...

    Read More

  • An Examination of Visual Agnosia

    1527 Words  | 4 Pages

    Visual agnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize familiar objects (Farah, 1990). Object recognition is the ability to place an object in a category of meaning. Most cases of visual agnosia are brought about through cerebral vascular accidents or traumatic brain injury typically inhibiting sufficient amounts of oxygen from reaching vital body tissues (Zoltan, 1996). There are a vast array of impaired abilities and deficits associated with individuals diagnosed with visual agnosia. These impairments vary considerably from individual to individual (Farah, 1990). Some patients cannot recognize pictures of things such as trees and birds, despite being able to describe such objects or recognize them through other senses such as sound and touch. Other patients demonstrate an inability to recognize faces of friends and family members (Goodale, 1995). The functional impairments experienced as a r...

    Read More

  • An Evaluation of Case Studies and Their Contribution to Cognitive Neuropsychology as a Discipline

    2094 Words  | 5 Pages

    McKone, E., Kanwisher, N. & Duchaine, B. C. (2007). Can generic expertise explain special processing for faces?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol 11, pp.8-15.

    Read More

More about Understanding Prosopagnosia: The Face Blindness Phenomenon

Open Document