VISUAL PERCEPTION IN PRADER-WILLI SYNDROME

这个研究项目关注的是有能力的人， Prader-Willi综合征（PWS）正确感知某些类别的 已经发现的刺激对人造成实质性的感知问题， 轻度智力迟钝的成年人。 其中包括全球立体 由随机元素立体图生成的形式，动力学的全局运动 形式产生的随机元素kinematograms，并整合 定义三维空间度量的刺激维度。 虽然这些刺激在物理上是简单的，但它们会引起复杂的感知。 此外，他们被迅速和自动地感知到， 注意力或其他认知过程。 这些特点 启发了人们努力开发模型和计算机模拟， 基本过程。 调查显示，这些刺激 对信息处理或计算提出了强大的要求， 感知系统。 他们提出的计算问题，导致我的 我和我的同事们推测，轻度弱智者可能 在正确地理解它们时遇到。 已经获得了支持那个猜想的大量证据 从一系列致力于阐明感知能力的研究中， 轻度弱智的成年人。 基本的结果是轻度弱智者 当人们处于一种状态时， 能量和信息的最大值。 但适度 这些变量的减少会严重损害 性能 在非弱智受试者没有 错误，弱智的受试者表现在机会。 结果的模式来自 这条调查路线有力地支持了这样一个假设，即迄今为止， 意外的知觉缺陷反映了视觉的基本损害 皮质机制 本项目评估了感知 与PWS患者使用相同刺激条件的能力 在调查轻度弱智者时使用 这些包括 由运动定义的形式的辨别，具有密度变化， 相关性和对视觉空间环境线索的敏感性。 的 同样的心理物理方法将使用设备已经在 地方

This program of research is concerned with the ability of persons with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) to perceive correctly certain classes of stimuli that have been found to pose substantial perceptual problems for adults with mild mental retardation. They include global stereoscopic forms generated by random element stereograms, global motion of kinetic forms generated by random element kinematograms, and the integration of stimulus dimensions that define the metric of three-dimensional space. While these stimuli are simple physically, they induce complex percepts. Moreover, they are perceived quickly and automatically without engaging attention or other cognitive processes. These characteristics have inspired efforts to develop models and computer simulations of the underlying processes. That inquiry has revealed that these stimuli impose formidable information processing or computational demands on the perceptual system. The computational problems they pose, led my colleagues and me to the conjecture that mildly retarded persons may encounter in perceiving them correctly. Considerable evidence in support of that conjecture has been obtained from a series of studies devoted to elucidating the perceptual capacities of mildly retarded adults. The basic result is that the mildly retarded persons can process the stimuli well above chance when they are at maximum values with respect to energy and information. But modest reduction in those variables produces substantial impairments in performance. Under conditions where nonretarded subjects perform without error, retarded subjects perform at chance. The pattern of results from this line of inquiry supports strongly the hypothesis that the heretofore unsuspected perceptual deficits reflect fundamental impairment of visual cortical mechanisms. The present project assesses the perceptual capacity of persons with PWS using the same stimulus conditions as those employed in the investigation of the mildly retarded. These include discrimination of forms defined by motion, with variations in density and correlation, and sensitivity to environment cues to visual space. The same psychophysical methods will be employed using equipment already in place.