Recognition of random shapes in brain-damaged patients.
In two experiments the hypothesis was tested that left hemisphere-damaged patients and especially those with aphasia are impaired in the recognition of meaningless random shapes because they fail to attribute a meaning to the shapes. In a multiple choice recognition task, left hemisphere-damaged patients with aphasia and left and right hemisphere-damaged patients without aphasia were shown complex random shapes together with either a pictorial cue (experiment I and II) or a dotted drawing of its outline on which more or less outstanding parts were specially marked (experiment I). In experiment I no difference between conditions or groups emerged. In experiment II aphasics and left hemisphere-damaged patients without aphasia were generally inferior to right hemisphere-damaged controls and performed significantly better when a pictorial cue was given than when it was absent, however only when the conditions were given in a certain order.
Universität Konstanz, Fachgruppe Psychologie, Federal Republic of Germany.
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A
Glöckner-Rist
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K
Gutbrod
R
R
Cohen
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000523:psychology*; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000523:psychology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged