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Showing posts from September, 2012

The grand schema things

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Even a quick glance at the adjacent picture should bring to mind for most people not only the name of this famous person, but a whole host of associated information – what he does (he’s an actor), perhaps some movies he’s been in, who he’s married to, maybe even who he’s no longer married to. Most of this information (depending on one’s level of familiarity with the particulars of the gentleman in question) will have sprung to mind automatically and effortlessly– indeed, it would be very difficult to actively stop it springing to mind, once the person is recognised. (Try thinking of an elephant without thinking of what colour it is). For some people, however, it is anything but effortless – it is impossible. Readers with prosopagnosia , for example, may still be waiting to find out who the hell I’ve been writing about (it’s Brad Pitt). This condition, also known as face blindness, impairs the ability to recognise people by their faces – the visual stimulus of the f