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Abstract:
Abstract: The Warrington Recognition Memory Test (RMT) and
the Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT) are commercially
available tests designed to evaluate face recognition. The validity
of these tests is important for two reasons: (1) as the only tests
available to clinicians, they are commonly used to assess face
recognition impairments, and (2) cognitive neuropsychologists have
assessed unfamiliar face recognition using them, and dissociations
between unfamiliar face recognition and familiar face recognition
have led researchers to postulate independent modules for these two
recognition processes. The validity of the RMF is questionable,
because its stimuli contain abundant non-facial information. On the
BFRT, subjects commonly rely on feature matching strategies using
the hairline and eyebrows rather than the facial configuration. In
order to test whether these non-facial routes to recognition can
support normal performance, subjects were tested with a modified
RMF containing only non-facial information and a modified BFRT
providing only the hairline and the eyebrows. The average modified
RMF score was in the normal range, and the average modified BFRT
score was just below the cut-off for normal performance. Because
numerous subjects scored normally on each test, it is apparent that
these tests do validly test unfamiliar face recognition. As a
result, clinicians require new face recognition tests, and the
evidence supporting the dissociation between unfamiliar face
recognition and familiar face recognition is discredited.
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