Data from: Evidence for normal novel object recognition abilities in developmental prosopagnosia

The issue of the face specificity of recognition deficits in developmental
prosopagnosia (DP) is fundamental to the organisation of high-level visual
memory and has been increasingly debated in recent years. Previous DP
investigations have found some evidence of object recognition impairments,
but have almost exclusively used familiar objects (e.g., cars), where
performance may depend on acquired object-specific experience and related
visual expertise. An object recognition test not influenced by experience
could provide a better, less contaminated measure of DPs’ object
recognition abilities. To investigate this, in the current study we tested
30 DPs and 30 matched controls on a novel object memory test (NOMT
Ziggerins) and the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT). DPs were impaired on
the CFMT but showed no differences in accuracy or reaction times to
controls on the NOMT. We found similar results when comparing DPs to a
larger sample of 274 web-based controls. Additional individual analyses
demonstrated that the rates of object recognition impairment in DPs did
not differ from the rate of impairment in either control group. Together,
these results demonstrate unimpaired object recognition in DPs for a class
of novel objects that serves as a powerful index for broader novel object
recognition capacity.