HETEROGENEITY IN THE COGNITIVE MANIFESTATIONS OF PROSOPAGNOSIA - THE STUDY OF A GROUP OF SINGLE CASES

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of prosopagno sia by testing a group of prosopagnosic subjects on the same set of te sts. A clinical test battery has been described by Bruyer and Schweich (1991), organised on the basis of the cognitive model of face recogni tion proposed by Bruce and Young (1986) and including Ellis's (1986b) suggestion of a facial decision stage. The battery consists of 6 basic tests tapping the various loci of the cognitive architecture, and 11 optional subtests provided to explore in more detail any defects that may be detected in the basic tests. The battery was administered to 9 prosopagnosic subjects as well as to a group of 72 normal subjects. Th e prosopagnosic subjects' performances illustrate that prosopagnosia i s not a unitary syndrome and they are used to support several dissocia tions provided by the cognitive models of face recognition.