ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author considers how neuropsychological and experimental evidence has enabled us to develop a broad framework which describes the relationship between such visual processes and subsequent cognitive processes which are also involved in object recognition. Neuropsychological evidence is also consistent with the broad framework. Problems in recognising objects can arise through deficits within or between any of the stages, and the patterns of impairment in object recognition which have been observed in brain damaged patients are revealing about the relationship between these different stages, and the internal organisation of each. The observed similarity between faces and other visual objects in terms of the functional organisation of semantic access and name retrieval is important for two reasons. First, it demonstrates that the same organising principles appear to hold for the recognition of faces and other visual objects. Secondly, given the similarity in functional organisation, faces provide a very important class of visual objects.
