Rapid categorization of faces and objects in a patient with impaired object recognition
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Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
Published on: November 2, 2012
Muriel Boucart1, Christine Moroni, Pascal Despretz
1LNFP, Universite Lille Nord de France, CNRS, Lille, France. m-boucart@chru-lille.fr
Abstract:
We tested rapid-categorization in a patient who was impaired in face and object recognition. Photographs of natural scenes were displayed for 100 ms. Participants had to press a key when they saw an animal among various objects as distractors or human faces among animal faces as distractors. Though the patient was impaired at figure/ground segregation, recognized very few objects and faces, she categorized animals and faces with a performance ranging between 70 and 86% correct. Displaying pictures in isolation did not improve performance. The results suggest that rapid categorization can be accomplished on the basis of coarse information without overt recognition.
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