Traditionally, studies in cognitive neuropsychology have reported single cases or small groups of patients with seemingly selective impairments of specific cognitive processes or modules. Many studies, particularly older ones, have used simple and coarse tasks to show that patients are disproportionally impaired in one task or domain compared to another. In many cases data for normal performance has not been referred to or reported. This has resulted in several theories of cognitive functioning in different domains such as language, visual perception, and memory, specifying a number of different modes or modules of processing.
With the development of more sensitive, computer-based (and theory based) tests, the development of methods for neuroimaging of single patients, alongside development of statistical methods for comparing (single) patients to control subjects, new perspectives for cognitive neuropsychology are opened up. The questions addressed in this symposium is whether the questions posed by cognitive neuropsychology are still relevant, and whether new methods can spark a new interest in the field, or if the time has passed when the observation of single and double dissociations in patients’ test performance can inform theories of (normal) cognitive function.
In four talks, this symposium will present and discuss methods for investigating impairment patterns in neuropsychological patients: 1) a talk on basic assumptions and statistical methods in single case methodology; 2) a talk reviewing and re-evaluating the single case-literature on a commonly assumed dissociation, 3) a talk on small group studies of patients with frontal pathology, and advances in group study methodology, and 4) a talk presenting studies of semantic cognition combining neuropsychological, computational and imaging techniques. At the end of the symposium, there will be a panel discussion about whether it is time to bury or resuscitate the art of cognitive neuropsychology.