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Stranger in the Mirror:
An Examination of Visual Agnosia
(60 min., 1993, VC 2464)
From NOVA

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Terms / Concepts

cognition percepts concepts primary visual cortex visual association cortex conscious and unconscious "levels" the film uses "knowledge" what does that mean? semantics	Scott N.J. Watamaniuk
limbic nervous system "A set of structures in and around the midbrain, forming a functional unit regulating motivational-emotional types of behavior such as waking and sleeping, excitement and quiescence, feeding, and mating" (Hilgard, Introduction to Psychology) this is important for learning of new faces and it is important for emotional responses Cf., synaesthesia Hearing Colours, Eating Sounds -- BBC

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Notes:

• context gives meaning to visual detail
  
  
• recognizing pattern is important
  
  
• We attach names to things. "When something has a name, it means that one has a perception category for the item, and that gives it meaning. . . . The name gives structure and order to the [perceptual] world."
  
  
  • "If we can attach names, then it is that knowledge of order that gives structure to our world."
    
    
• 19^th century brain injury (1848) to Phineas P. Gage led to personality change ("no longer Gage")
  
  
• John, the English man could recognize individual letters [on signs], but couldn't read the words.
  
  
  • but if he heard his wife, for example, in the railroad station, he would recognize her -- so his hearing was not suffering from the problem that his vision was
    
    
  • The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat could recognize individual letters, but couldn't read the words
    
    
• The Birmingham analysis sought (1) to check "recognition" (but the Englishman could see and could even copy by drawing the picture of the bird); their (2) second question was could the patient find a name for the item (but the Englishman knew the names and the definitions).
  
  
  • The 3-D image literally doesn't exist in our heads; it is created by the brain
    
    
• Larry does not have recognition at a conscious level, but he does have recognition at an unconscious level. There is a difference between having conscious knowledge of something, and having unconscious knowledge of something.

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"Everyday Cognition" – perception . . . cognition . . . and . . .

• categorization (stereotyping?)
  
  
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
  
  
• Culturally Constituted Behavioral Environment (CCBE)
  
  
  • A.I. Hallowell
    
    
• Species Specific Behavioral Environment
  
  (The original B-EYE site seems to be off of the web. An archived site, courtesy of Pandora: Australia's Web Archive, can be found at <http://pandora.nla.gov.au/nph-arch/1999/O1999-Sep-6/http://cvs.anu.edu.au/andy/beye/beyehome.html>
  
  
  • Image #1 / Original of Image #1
  • Image #2 / Original of Image #2
  • Image #3 / Original of Image #3
  • Image #4 / Original of Image #4
    • B-EYE -- Andrew Giger

  Original Site:		Image #1 / Original of Image #1 Image #2 / Original of Image #2 Image #3 / Original of Image #3 Image #4 / Original of Image #4
  		B-EYE -- Andrew Gige

  • Animals Eyes -- An "Topic in Depth" report from the NSDL Scout Report (1 November 2002 -- Volume 1, Number 21)
    
    
    
• Sex Specific Behavioral Environment
  
  
  • Creamer Color Chart -- John Creamer, M.D.
    
    
• semantics
  
  
  • conscious / unconscious
  • Question: "How would you design a research project to study the above?"
  • color research??
  • "componential analysis"?
  • ethnosemantics?
  • ethnoscience?
  • Anthropac?
    
    

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• Question: "How do Alterted States of Conscious (ASCs) fit in?"
  
  

The problems with visual agnosia occur "between" the percepts and the "concepts" stages . . .

 

cognition	perception: vision wife's face wave / particle eyes brain "per - cepts"			conception "con - cepts"

Source: James P. Spradley (Ed.), Culture and Cognition: Rules, Maps, and Plans
(San Francisco, CA: Chandler, 1972), p. 9.

Cf., "Foundations of Cultural Knowledge," in Culture and Cognition: Rules, Maps, and Plans
(San Francisco, CA: Chandler, 1972), pp. 3-38.

cognition perception sensory vision hearing touch taste smell extra - sensory (ESP) 6th ? conception Cf., "Foundations of Cultural Knowledge," in Culture and Cognition: Rules, Maps, and Plans (San Francisco, CA: Chandler, 1972), pp. 3-38.

Percepts Source: James P. Spradley (Ed.), Culture and Cognition: Rules, Maps, and Plans (San Francisco, CA: Chandler, 1972), p. 9.

The Formation of Concepts Source: James P. Spradley (Ed.), Culture and Cognition: Rules, Maps, and Plans (San Francisco, CA: Chandler, 1972), p. 10.

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Cultures:

English

American

Individuals:

Paul Broca ("Broca's area" of the brain)

Phineas Gage

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References:

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat : And Other Clinical Tales -- Oliver W. Sacks

Questions:

What is re - cognition? And "pattern recognition?"

What is re - call? And "pattern recall?"

How does "phantom pain" enter into this?

How does this relate to odor research?

How would you compare this research with Dr. Edwin May's "Remote Viewing" Houston research seen in the "ESP" segment from Science Frontiers: Put to the Test?

with visual agnosia you have percepts without concepts

Cf., Stranger in the Mirror: An Examination of Visual Agnosia (60 min., 1993, VC 2464) [From NOVA ]

with ESP do you have concepts without percepts?