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Abstract:
Abstract: Category-specific effects in visual encoding and
retrieval were investigated in an episodic color-association recall
paradigm. The paradigm is as follows: 2 colored items were briefly
presented on the computer screen followed by a black and white
probe. Participant's task was to recall the color of the cued item.
After a number of these training repetitions using consistently
colored items, participants were asked to recall the color of each
item used in the experiment. We investigated recall of newly
learned color associations for mammals, fruits and vegetables,
musical instruments, and tools, categories most frequently affected
in category-specific visual agnosia (CSVA). Recall accuracy for
these categories followed the typical pattern displayed by CSVA for
living objects (for example, 37% for mammals, compared to 51% for
utensils), despite 90% accuracy in the training phase. We compared
the 4 categories to sets of items that were either visually similar
but semantically unrelated (70% recall accuracy), or visually and
semantically unrelated (77% recall accuracy). An examination of
errors to the fruit and vegetable category revealed that
significantly more errors were both semantically and visually
related than would be expected by chance. We suggest that a common
principle may underlie category effects in our task and CSVA, one
that involves the interaction of visual form and semantics in the
retrieval of object-specific knowledge.
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