Contrasting domain-general and domain-specific accounts in cognitive neuropsychology: An outline of a new approach with developmental prosopagnosia as a case
Contrasting domain-general and domain-specific accounts in cognitive neuropsychology: An outline of a new approach with developmental prosopagnosia as a case
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DOI：
10.3758/s13428-021-01774-4
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发表时间：
2022-02-01
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
Starrfelt, Randi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gerlach, Christian;Barton, Jason J. S.;Starrfelt, Randi
认知神经心理学的支柱是观察患者之间表现的(双重)分离，这表明认知过程之间存在一定程度的独立性(领域特异性)。相比之下，在认知结构的神经心理学理论中，对障碍/缺陷之间联系的观察被认为证据较少。原因是，联想可以反映出对独立认知过程的损害，而这些过程恰好是由通常受同一大脑紊乱影响的结构所调节的，而不是对共享(领域通用)机制的损害。在这里，我们证明，原则上可以通过涉及大的无偏样本的程序来区分这些备选方案。我们在发育性失认症(DP)的背景下举例说明该程序，但原则上该程序适用于所有神经心理缺陷/障碍。在数据集上对这一过程的模拟产生了与现有DP研究很好地一致的分离/关联估计，并表明表面上的选择性障碍可以反映对领域一般和领域特定认知过程的损害。然而，模拟也突出了一些限制，如果要前瞻性地应用该程序，应该考虑这些限制。该程序的主要优点是允许检查同一样品中的缔合和解离。因此，它甚至可能有助于平衡使用联想和解离作为神经心理学理论的基础。
The backbone of cognitive neuropsychology is the observation of (double) dissociations in performance between patients, suggesting some degree of independence between cognitive processes (domain specificity). In comparison, observations of associations between disorders/deficits have been deemed less evidential in neuropsychological theorizing about cognitive architecture. The reason is that associations can reflect damage to independent cognitive processes that happen to be mediated by structures commonly affected by the same brain disorder rather than damage to a shared (domain-general) mechanism. Here we demonstrate that it is in principle possible to discriminate between these alternatives by means of a procedure involving large unbiased samples. We exemplify the procedure in the context of developmental prosopagnosia (DP), but the procedure is in principle applicable to all neuropsychological deficits/disorders. A simulation of the procedure on a dataset yields estimates of dissociations/associations that are well in line with existing DP-studies, and also suggests that seemingly selective disorders can reflect damage to both domain-general and domain-specific cognitive processes. However, the simulation also highlights some limitations that should be considered if the procedure is to be applied prospectively. The main advantage of the procedure is that allows for examination of both associations and dissociations in the same sample. Hence, it may help even the balance in the use of associations and dissociations as grounds for neuropsychological theorizing.