"Running header:OBJECT RECOGNITION Object RecognitionName Institution OBJECT RECOGNITION 2Object recognition refers to the ability to make out the physical properties of an object,(for example its color and its shape) as well as an application of the object?s semantic attributeslike being aware of its use. A familiarity of the object due to preceding experience with it, plushow the relationship of the object to other objects (Biederman & Ju, 1988). In other words,object recognition helps in executing various tasks: it helps one to recognize a certain kind ofobject (a vehicle). A certain exemplar (this vehicle), distinguishing the object from others (thevehicle I saw yesterday), as well as matching the object with others (this vehicle is similar to thatone).Visual recognition normally appears effortless, but it?s an extremely sophisticatedprocess. It is a sophisticated and difficult process because a particular object differstremendously from the exemplar and that the viewing conditions or viewpoints can besignificantly different. An important accomplishment of object recognition is that it helps peopledistinguish an object even when seen from different viewpoints, and even if the images of thatparticular object somewhat differ from one another. People are also capable of rapidlycategorizing an object (for example a fowl) even if there?re various kinds of birds. Additionally,recognition helps a person to distinguish an object even though he has never come across itbefore. Usually, visual recognition works well despite differences in lighting conditionsreflection, shading, and shadows. ProsopagnosiaA big part of research regarding visual recognition centers on whether (or not) there?s aspecialized face recognition process and another visual process specialized for non-face OBJECT RECOGNITION 3recognition. Prosopagnosia refers to a person?s inability to distinguish faces, even the faces ofpeople that are familiar with family members and friends (Bauer, 1984). As such, this conditionis also referred to as „face blindness? and normally results from brain damage. Most peopleaffected by prosopagnosia also experience some problems when it comes to object recognition.Face recognition and non-face recognition abilities vary from one person to another, whichmakes it difficult for researchers to study prosopagnosia. The source of this condition variesfrom one person to another depending on whether it is acquired prosopagnosia (resulting frombrain damage) or developmental prosopagnosia. Until recently, almost all prosopagnosicsdocumented in articles of research got prosopagnosia as a result of the degenerative condition,stroke or trauma. In her comprehensive review about agnosia, Farah et al (1995) listed not lessthan 80 cases of acquired face recognition impairments. In comparison, only two cases ofdevelopmental prosopagnosia were reported. However, since the turn of the century, morearticles have documented persons who had prosopagnosia since their early childhood days.Consider Bill?s case. He didn?t know that he couldn?t recognize people?s faces until hewas aged almost 50 years. However, he can connect many tales from his early days that suggestthat his condition is developmental. He narrates that at age six at the movies, he once told afriend that it was of no use for the burglars to just cover their faces, yet somebody can still seethe rest of their bodies. He remembers one day passing his mom while walking on the streetsbecause he didn?t recognize her. His enrolment in the Navy lasted only four days as he freakedout due to failure to distinguish people because they all had similar uniforms and haircuts. Bruce and Young (1986) opine that familiar and unfamiliar faces are recognized indifferent ways. Recognizing familiar faces depend mainly on structural encoding, person identitynodes, face recognition units, and name generation. In contrast, however, the processing of OBJECT RECOGNITION 4unfamiliar faces involves expression analysis, structural encoding, directed visual processing andfacial speech analysis. If different processes are involved, then a number of patients should havea much better face recognition for familiar faces than for unfamiliar ones, whereas other patientsmay have the opposite pattern (i.e. a double dissociation).AgnosiaVisual agnosia refers to a condition in which a patient who has suffered brain damageexperiences difficulties in identifying objects. Patients with this condition normally have a lot ofstored information regarding objects and as such, they can recognize the objects through touch,and they can offer detailed verbal descriptions regarding objects if enquired to do so. Lissauer(1890) is quoted by De Renzi et al (1991) to have identified two different kinds of visualagnosia:a)Apperceptive agnosia – impaired object recognition mainly as a result of problems inthe complex perceptual process, andb)Associative agnosia – the perceptual process is intact, but the patient has difficultyrecognizing objects because he cannot access the respective stored information from the long- term memory regarding the objects that are visually presented. In their review of previous research regarding apperceptive agnosia, Grossman, Galetta,and D?Esposito (1997), found out that one patient couldn?t distinguish between an „O? and an„X? while another one described a circle as a concentration of „many dots.' The researchers alsostudied two patients, AP, a 65-year-old teacher, and SZ, a 54-year-old accountant. The patientscould identify colors as well as common geometric shapes despite the fact that their ability toidentify common objects was severely impaired. Nevertheless, they showed very poor OBJECT RECOGNITION 5recognition of more complex shapes and were also unable to make out the shapes when theywere shown upside down. Anaki et al (2007) examined patient DBO who had suffered brain damage at the back ofhis head in the brain?s left occipital lobe. The patient was described to have severe visual agnosiaas he could only name one out of twenty common objects. Despite having this severe visualagnosia, DBO was still able to perform other tasks quite well, yet the tasks involved some objectrecognition aspects. Since DOB still had various perceptual skills, it means that he hadassociative agnosia as opposed to apperceptive agnosia. Empirical research thus shows that themanner of visual agnosia differs significantly from one patient to another. ConclusionIn conclusion, prosopagnosia is also termed as face blindness and is normally caused bybrain injury. Research studies have shown evidence that object recognition and face recognitionrelies on distinct processes. Prosopagnosia is known as “face blindness.” It is usually caused bybrain damage. Research suggests, however, that object and face recognition mainly relies ondifferent processes. Young and Bruce have provided a detailed and complex account of how there arenumerous forms of visual processing in the face recognition. They have, on the other hand,provided a great deal of insight into a wide range of information which can be extracted fromfaces. The theory has, therefore, contributed greatly to our the understanding of the variousproblems with diverse aspects of face recognition shown by brain-damaged victims or patients. "