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Abstract:
Schizophrenia patients show global facial processing
deficits. This study addressed the possibility that these deficits
reflect a problem in gestalt perception. Researchers have proposed
that individuals with schizophrenia perceive visual information in
a piecemeal fashion (part-based processing) rather than in a
holistic fashion. We tested this possibility by studying the
effects of inverting stimuli on recognition for faces and objects.
Facial perception, unlike object perception, relies on holistic
processing. One example of this is that recognition of faces is
disproportionately affected by inversion compared to that of
objects, the so-called "face inversion" effect. We reasoned that if
schizophrenia patients utilize holistic processes, their
recognition performance would show this face inversion effect.
Patients and controls were shown upright unfamiliar faces and
houses at study. At test, subjects were shown pairs of upright and
inverted faces and houses, and they were asked to recognize
previously presented study items. Although patients were impaired
on overall recognition, both groups showed a greater deficit for
recognizing inverted faces than inverted houses. These results
suggest that basic face perception mechanisms (holistic processes)
are intact in individuals with schizophrenia. The deficits we
observed in face recognition are better explained by an impaired
neural system for declarative memory.
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