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Visual Agnosia

Visual Agnosia

Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round end"...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 23, 2026

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Published on: November 30, 2018

Self-directed speech affects visual search performance.

Gary Lupyan¹, Daniel Swingley

¹Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. lupyan@wisc.edu

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)

|April 12, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Talking to yourself, or self-directed speech, can enhance visual search performance. Hearing object names aloud improves detection, especially when the name strongly matches the visual target.

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Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language

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Published on: October 13, 2018

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Last Updated: May 23, 2026

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Published on: November 30, 2018

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language

Published on: October 13, 2018

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Visual Perception
Psycholinguistics

Background:

Self-directed speech, or talking to oneself, is common but its functions are poorly understood.
The label feedback hypothesis suggests verbal labels can alter perceptual processing.
Previous research indicates that verbalizing can influence cognitive tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effects of self-directed speech on visual processing.
To examine how speaking object names affects visual search performance.
To test the label feedback hypothesis in the context of visual search.

Main Methods:

Participants performed a visual search task for common objects.
Participants were sometimes prompted to say the name of the target object aloud.
The association between the spoken name and the visual target was manipulated.

Main Results:

Speaking the object's name facilitated visual search performance.
This facilitation was strongest when the name and visual target were highly associated.
When the name and target were dissimilar, speaking impaired search performance.

Conclusions:

Self-directed speech, specifically verbalizing object names, can modulate visual processing.
The impact of self-directed speech on perception is dependent on the congruence between the verbal label and the visual stimulus.
These findings highlight the powerful role of language in shaping visual perception.