On drawing inferences about the structure of normal cognitive systems from the analysis of patterns of impaired performance: The case for single-patient studies

Update on the psychometric properties for the Italian version of the Aachen Aphasia Test (IT-AAT)

“…The ordinal multidimensional scaling solution thus directly relates quite well to the previously suggested radex hypothesis on the interrelation between tasks of linguistic nature in an aphasia test (Willmes et al, 1983; for a general exposition of facet theory, see, Canter, 1985). This hypothesis states that aphasia tests performance reflects two facets: a non-ordered facet "language modality" and an ordered facet "linguistic processing complexity."…”

Update on the psychometric properties for the Italian version of the Aachen Aphasia Test (IT-AAT)

“…The ordinal multidimensional scaling solution thus directly relates quite well to the previously suggested radex hypothesis on the interrelation between tasks of linguistic nature in an aphasia test (Willmes et al, 1983; for a general exposition of facet theory, see, Canter, 1985). This hypothesis states that aphasia tests performance reflects two facets: a non-ordered facet "language modality" and an ordered facet "linguistic processing complexity."…”

Twenty years of investigation with the case of prosopagnosia PS to understand human face identity recognition. Part I: Function

“…Both GG and LR vary in absolute performance and speed between themselves, and in comparison to PS, as tested with the same FIR tasks (e.g., see Rossion et al, 2009 for direct comparison between the three cases). Again, this is in line with the known variability of performance of reported cases of prosopagnosia (Sergent & Signoret, 1992;Barton, 2008) and this variability supports a (multiple) single case approach rather than group studies (Shallice, 1979;Caramazza, 1986). Based on this functional variability, I was nevertheless hoping initially, and I expected, to find qualitatively different response profiles compared to PS and describe different types of prosopagnosia (which I thought would have been more exciting intellectually).…”

Where numbers meet words: A common ventral network for semantic classification

“…Consequently, the focus in neuropsychological case studies is on detecting (double) dissociations within domains to draw conclusions on the “functional lesions” of those patients with respect to a model of the cognitive architecture of the respective domain. However, as argued, for instance, by Caramazza (, p. 65) associations of (functional) deficits may be as informative as dissociations – considering in the present case the possibility of cross‐domain processes/functions to be involved in human cognition – when concluding that “there are situations where our models do require that we predict the co‐occurrence of symptoms given some hypothesis of the nature of the functional lesion.”…”

Update on the psychometric properties for the Italian version of the Aachen Aphasia Test (IT-AAT)

“…The ordinal multidimensional scaling solution thus directly relates quite well to the previously suggested radex hypothesis on the interrelation between tasks of linguistic nature in an aphasia test (Willmes et al, 1983; for a general exposition of facet theory, see, Canter, 1985). This hypothesis states that aphasia tests performance reflects two facets: a non-ordered facet "language modality" and an ordered facet "linguistic processing complexity."…”

Twenty years of investigation with the case of prosopagnosia PS to understand human face identity recognition. Part I: Function

“…Both GG and LR vary in absolute performance and speed between themselves, and in comparison to PS, as tested with the same FIR tasks (e.g., see Rossion et al, 2009 for direct comparison between the three cases). Again, this is in line with the known variability of performance of reported cases of prosopagnosia (Sergent & Signoret, 1992;Barton, 2008) and this variability supports a (multiple) single case approach rather than group studies (Shallice, 1979;Caramazza, 1986). Based on this functional variability, I was nevertheless hoping initially, and I expected, to find qualitatively different response profiles compared to PS and describe different types of prosopagnosia (which I thought would have been more exciting intellectually).…”

Where numbers meet words: A common ventral network for semantic classification

“…Consequently, the focus in neuropsychological case studies is on detecting (double) dissociations within domains to draw conclusions on the “functional lesions” of those patients with respect to a model of the cognitive architecture of the respective domain. However, as argued, for instance, by Caramazza (, p. 65) associations of (functional) deficits may be as informative as dissociations – considering in the present case the possibility of cross‐domain processes/functions to be involved in human cognition – when concluding that “there are situations where our models do require that we predict the co‐occurrence of symptoms given some hypothesis of the nature of the functional lesion.”…”

Update on the psychometric properties for the Italian version of the Aachen Aphasia Test (IT-AAT)

“…The ordinal multidimensional scaling solution thus directly relates quite well to the previously suggested radex hypothesis on the interrelation between tasks of linguistic nature in an aphasia test (Willmes et al, 1983; for a general exposition of facet theory, see, Canter, 1985). This hypothesis states that aphasia tests performance reflects two facets: a non-ordered facet "language modality" and an ordered facet "linguistic processing complexity."…”

Twenty years of investigation with the case of prosopagnosia PS to understand human face identity recognition. Part I: Function

“…Both GG and LR vary in absolute performance and speed between themselves, and in comparison to PS, as tested with the same FIR tasks (e.g., see Rossion et al, 2009 for direct comparison between the three cases). Again, this is in line with the known variability of performance of reported cases of prosopagnosia (Sergent & Signoret, 1992;Barton, 2008) and this variability supports a (multiple) single case approach rather than group studies (Shallice, 1979;Caramazza, 1986). Based on this functional variability, I was nevertheless hoping initially, and I expected, to find qualitatively different response profiles compared to PS and describe different types of prosopagnosia (which I thought would have been more exciting intellectually).…”

Where numbers meet words: A common ventral network for semantic classification

“…Consequently, the focus in neuropsychological case studies is on detecting (double) dissociations within domains to draw conclusions on the “functional lesions” of those patients with respect to a model of the cognitive architecture of the respective domain. However, as argued, for instance, by Caramazza (, p. 65) associations of (functional) deficits may be as informative as dissociations – considering in the present case the possibility of cross‐domain processes/functions to be involved in human cognition – when concluding that “there are situations where our models do require that we predict the co‐occurrence of symptoms given some hypothesis of the nature of the functional lesion.”…”