SELECTIVE IMPAIRMENT OF THE RETRIEVAL OF PEOPLES NAMES - A CASE OF CATEGORY SPECIFICITY

Recent cases of 'proper names anomia' have been interpreted as arising from a category-specific recall deficit that is mediated either by th e effects of 'uniqueness', or 'meaningfulness'. However, an alternativ e account is suggested by the report of a patient whose difficulties i n naming familiar people arise from a selective learning impairment. T he current case study presents data that are inconsistent with a learn ing interpretation of difficulties in naming people. We conclude that a dissociation exists between selective deficits affecting the learnin g and recall of people's names.