Over the past 15 years there have been considerable advances in understanding visual processing. These advances have been fuelled by such developments as, among others, the use of powerful computing systems that enable processing algorithms to be carried out in real time, the application of experimental paradigms developed with normal observers to provide more accurate analyses of patients with impaired vision, and the development of new learning algorithms that can be applied in artificial neural networks.

The chapters in this new book span the range of reading processes from early visual analysis to semantic influences on word identification, thus providing a state-of-the-art summary of current work and offering important contributions to prospective reading research. Basic Processes in Reading examines both future plans and past accomplishments in the world of word identification research. Three chapters provide a futuristic view taking a parallel distributed processing approach to semantic priming, phonology, and the identification of old words and the learning of new words. Reviews on eye...

Brain damage may sometimes cause remarkably specific impairments in human behaviour. One very rare and specific impairment is the failure to recognize everyday objects by sight, a problem which is termed visual agnosia. In this book, the authors discuss the case of a patient, John, who suffered from visual agnosia after having a stroke. John also had difficulty recognizing faces or his immediate environment.

Vision allows us to do many things. It enables us to perceive a world composed of meaningful objects and events. It enables us to track those events as they take place in front of our eyes. It enables us to read. It provides accurate spatial information for actions such as reaching for or avoiding objects. It provides colour and texture that can help us to separate objects from their background, and so forth. This book is concerned with understanding the processes that allow us to carry out these various visually?driven behaviours. In the past ten years our understanding of visual processing...

One important means to understanding normal cognitive functions is the study of the breakdown of these functions following brain damage. This book provides reviews of major case studies dealing with the breakdown of visual perception and recognition, including the disorders: motion vision, colour vision, perceptual integration, perceptual classification, recognition of particular categories of object, semantic access from vision (in optic aphasia), and recognition impairments with relative sparing of imagery. The cases are discussed in the light of studies that have followed since, and the...

Some of the most fascinating deficits in neuropsychology concern the failure to recognise common objects from one semantic category, such as living things, when there is no such difficulty with objects from another, such as non-living things. Over the past twenty years, numerous cases of these 'category specific' recognition and naming problems have been documented and several competing theories have been developed to account for the patients' disorders.
Category Specificity in Brain and Mind draws together the neuropsychological literature on category-specific impairments, with...

Over the past forty years much work has assessed how attention modulates perception, but relatively little work has evaluated the role of attention in action. This is despite the fact that recent research indicates that the relation between attention and action is a crucial factor in human performance. Attention in Action provides state-of-the-art discussion of the role of attention in action and of action in constraining attention. The research takes an interdisciplinary approach covering experimental studies of attention and action, neuropsychological studies of patients with...

The chapters in this new book span the range of reading processes from early visual analysis to semantic influences on word identification, thus providing a state-of-the-art summary of current work and offering important contributions to prospective reading research. Basic Processes in Reading examines both future plans and past accomplishments in the world of word identification research. Three chapters provide a futuristic view taking a parallel distributed processing approach to semantic priming, phonology, and the identification of old words and the learning of new words. Reviews on eye...

This textbook provides an introduction and review of connectionist models applied to psychological topics. Chapters include basic reviews of connectionist models, their properties and their attributes. The application of these models to various

1. Introdudion This volume collects together the refereed versions of 25 papers presented at the 5th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW5), held at the University of Birmingham from the 8th until the lOth of September 1998. The NCPW is a well-established, lively forum, which brings together researchers from a range of disciplines (artificial intelligence, mathematics, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, philosophy and psychology), all of whom are interested in the application of neurally-inspired (connectionist) models to topics in psychology. The theme of the 5th...