Item response theory analyses of the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT)

Recent Advances in Neuropsychological Test Interpretation for Clinical Practice

Much attention in the field of clinical neuropsychology has focused on adapting to the modern healthcare environment by advancing telehealth and promoting technological innovation in assessment. Perhaps as important (but less discussed) are advances in the development and interpretation of normative neuropsychological test data. These techniques can yield improvement in diagnostic decision-making and treatment planning with little additional cost. Brooks and colleagues (Can Psychol 50: 196-209, 2009) eloquently summarized best practices in normative data creation and interpretation, providing a practical overview of norm development, measurement error, the base rates of low scores, and methods for assessing change. Since the publication of this seminal work, there have been several important advances in research on development and interpretation of normative neuropsychological test data, which may be less familiar to the practicing clinician. Specifically, we provide a review of the literature on regression-based normed scores, item response theory, multivariate base rates, summary/factor scores, cognitive intraindividual variability, and measuring change over time. For each topic, we include (1) an overview of the method, (2) a rapid review of the recent literature, (3) a relevant case example, and (4) a discussion of limitations and controversies. Our goal was to provide a primer for use of normative neuropsychological test data in neuropsychological practice.

Cross-cultural Diagnostic Validity of the Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) in a Sample of Older Adults

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy of the 32-item version of the Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) in participants from 2 ethnic groups (European Americans [EA; n = 106] and Hispanic Americans [HA; n = 175]) with 3 diagnostic groups (cognitively normal [CN], n = 94, mild cognitive impairment [MCI], n = 148, and dementia, n = 39).

METHOD

An Item Response Theory model was used to evaluate items across ethnicity and language groups (Spanish and English), resulting in a 24-item version. We analyzed the MINT discriminant and predictive validity across diagnostic groups.

RESULTS

A total of 8 items were differentially difficult between languages in the 32-item version of the MINT. EA scored significantly higher than HA, but the difference was not significant when removing those 8 items (controlling for Education). The Receiver Operating Characteristics showed that the MINT had poor accuracy when identifying CN participants and was acceptable in identifying dementia participants but unacceptable in classifying MCI participants. Finally, we tested the association between MINT scores and magnetic resonance imaging volumetric measures of language-related areas in the temporal and frontal lobes. The 32-item MINT in English and Spanish and the 24-item MINT in Spanish were significantly correlated with the bilateral middle temporal gyrus. The left fusiform gyrus correlated with MINT scores regardless of language and MINT version. We also found differential correlations depending on the language of administration.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results highlight the importance of analyzing cross-cultural samples when implementing clinical neuropsychological tests such as the MINT.

Measuring object recognition ability: Reliability, validity, and the aggregate z-score approach

Measurement of domain-general object recognition ability (o) requires minimization of domain-specific variance. One approach is to model o as a latent variable explaining performance on a battery of tests which differ in task demands and stimuli; however, time and sample requirements may be prohibitive. Alternatively, an aggregate measure of o can be obtained by averaging z-scores across tests. Using data from Sunday et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151, 676-694, (2022), we demonstrated that aggregate scores from just two such object recognition tests provide a good approximation (r = .79) of factor scores calculated from a model using a much larger set of tests. Some test combinations produced correlations of up to r = .87 with factor scores. We then revised these tests to reduce testing time, and developed an odd one out task, using a unique object category on nearly every trial, to increase task and stimuli diversity. To validate our measures, 163 participants completed the object recognition tests on two occasions, one month apart. Providing the first evidence that o is stable over time, our short aggregate o measure demonstrated good test-retest reliability (r = .77). The stability of o could not be completely accounted for by intelligence, perceptual speed, and early visual ability. Structural equation modeling suggested that our tests load significantly onto the same latent variable, and revealed that as a latent variable, o is highly stable (r = .93). Aggregation is an efficient method for estimating o, allowing investigation of individual differences in object recognition ability to be more accessible in future studies.

Face identification proficiency test designed using item response theory

Measures of face-identification proficiency are essential to ensure accurate and consistent performance by professional forensic face examiners and others who perform face-identification tasks in applied scenarios. Current proficiency tests rely on static sets of stimulus items and so cannot be administered validly to the same individual multiple times. To create a proficiency test, a large number of items of "known" difficulty must be assembled. Multiple tests of equal difficulty can be constructed then using subsets of items. We introduce the Triad Identity Matching (TIM) test and evaluate it using item response theory (IRT). Participants view face-image "triads" (N = 225) (two images of one identity, one image of a different identity) and select the different identity. In Experiment 3, university students (N = 197) showed wide-ranging accuracy on the TIM test, and IRT modeling demonstrated that the TIM items span various difficulty levels. In Experiment 3, we used IRT-based item metrics to partition the test into subsets of specific difficulties. Simulations showed that subsets of the TIM items yielded reliable estimates of subject ability. In Experiments 3a and b, we found that the student-derived IRT model reliably evaluated the ability of non-student participants and that ability generalized across different test sessions. In Experiment 3c, we show that TIM test performance correlates with other common face-recognition tests. In summary, the TIM test provides a starting point for developing a framework that is flexible and calibrated to measure proficiency across various ability levels (e.g., professionals or populations with face-processing deficits).

Sex and menstrual cycle influence human spatial navigation strategies and performance

Which facets of human spatial navigation do sex and menstrual cycle influence? To answer this question, a cross-sectional online study of reproductive age women and men was conducted in which participants were asked to demonstrate and self-report their spatial navigation skills and strategies. Participants self-reported their sex and current menstrual phase [early follicular (EF), late follicular/periovulatory (PO), and mid/late luteal (ML)], and completed a series of questionnaires and tasks measuring self-reported navigation strategy use, topographical memory, cognitive map formation, face recognition, and path integration. We found that sex influenced self-reported use of cognitive map- and scene-based strategies, face recognition, and path integration. Menstrual phase moderated the influence of sex: compared to men, women had better face recognition and worse path integration, but only during the PO phase; PO women were also better at path integration in the presence of a landmark compared to EF + ML women and men. These findings provide evidence that human spatial navigation varies with the menstrual cycle and suggest that sensitivity of the entorhinal cortex and longitudinal axis of the hippocampus to differential hormonal effects may account for this variation.

Visual object recognition ability is not related to experience with visual arts

Visual arts require the ability to process, categorize, recognize, and understand a variety of visual inputs. These challenges may engage and even influence mechanisms that are also relevant for visual object recognition beyond visual arts. A domain-general object recognition ability that applies broadly across a range of visual tasks was recently discovered. Here, we ask whether experience with visual arts is correlated with this domain-general ability. We developed a new survey to measure general visual arts experience and use it to measure arts experience in 142 individuals in whom we also estimated domain-general object recognition ability. Despite our measures demonstrating high reliability in a large sample size, we found substantial evidence (BF01 = 9.52) for no correlation between visual arts experience and general object recognition ability. This suggests that experience in visual arts has little influence on object recognition skills or vice versa, at least in our sample ranging from low to moderately high levels of arts experience. Our methods can be extended to other populations and our results should be replicated, as they suggest some limitations for the generalization of programs targeting visual literacy beyond the visual arts.

Atypical prosopagnosia following right hemispheric stroke: A 23-year follow-up study with M.T

Most findings on prosopagnosia to date suggest preserved voice recognition in prosopagnosia (except in cases with bilateral lesions). Here we report a follow-up examination on M.T., suffering from acquired prosopagnosia following a large unilateral right-hemispheric lesion in frontal, parietal, and anterior temporal areas excluding core ventral occipitotemporal face areas. Twenty-three years after initial testing we reassessed face and object recognition skills [Henke, K., Schweinberger, S. R., Grigo, A., Klos, T., & Sommer, W. (1998). Specificity of face recognition: Recognition of exemplars of non-face objects in prosopagnosia. Cortex, 34(2), 289-296]; [Schweinberger, S. R., Klos, T., & Sommer, W. (1995). Covert face recognition in prosopagnosia - A dissociable function? Cortex, 31(3), 517-529] and additionally studied voice recognition. Confirming the persistence of deficits, M.T. exhibited substantial impairments in famous face recognition and memory for learned faces, but preserved face matching and object recognition skills. Critically, he showed substantially impaired voice recognition skills. These findings are congruent with the ideas that (i) prosopagnosia after right anterior temporal lesions can persist over long periods > 20 years, and that (ii) such lesions can be associated with both facial and vocal deficits in person recognition.

OUP accepted manuscript

While there have been decades of clinical and theoretical interest in developmental and acquired face recognition difficulties, very little work has examined their remediation. Here, we report two studies that examined the efficacy of an existing face training programme in improving face-processing skills in adults and children with developmental face recognition impairments. The programme has only been trialled in typical children to date, where 2 weeks of perceptual training (modelled on an adapted version of the popular family game Guess Who?) resulted in face-specific improvements for memory but not perception after 2 weeks of training. In Study 1, we performed a randomized, parallel groups, placebo-controlled trial of the same programme in 20 adults with a pre-existing diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia. Assessment tasks were administered immediately before and after training, and 2 weeks later. Face-specific gains in memory (but not perception) were observed in the experimental group and were greatest in those with the poorest face recognition skills at entry. These gains persisted 2 weeks after training ceased. In Study 2, a case-series approach was used to administer the experimental version of the training programme to four children who presented with difficulties in face recognition. Improvements in face memory were observed in three of the participants; while one also improved at face perception, there was mixed evidence for the face specificity of these gains. Together, these findings suggest plasticity in the human face recognition system through to at least mid-adulthood and also pave the way for longer-term implementations of the face training programme that will likely elicit greater gains in both adults and children.

Components of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index in Iranian adult population: an item response theory model

Objective/background

There have been conducted few studies in Iran on the quality of sleep in the general population. This study aimed to use the item response theory (IRT) model to examine the accuracy of the seven components of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and to provide an appropriate cut-off point for population-based studies.

Methods

This study was performed using the data of the second phase of the Shahroud Eye Cohort Study (ShECS) in 2014. The sleep quality of 4710 participants was measured through PSQI. Using an IRT model, the seven components of the index are considered as indicators and sleep quality as the latent variable in the measurement model. This model supposed that there is only one hidden component to explain the respondent's behavior to a number of items.

Results

Results of analyzing different components of PSQI showed that component 6 (using sleep medication) and 7 (daytime dysfunction disorder) had the lowest values of discrimination parameter and component 4 (habitual sleep efficiency) and 1 (sleep quality) had the highest value of discrimination parameter. Persons with an expected sleep quality score of less than or equal to 6.5 will be defined as good sleep quality pattern.

Conclusions

Since discrimination values for components 6 and 7 are less than the values for other components, the use of the standardized latent scores is emphasized for assessing the quality of sleep in the population.

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For seven components of PSQI, difficulty and discrimination parameters were estimated using IRT.

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Using an IRT model persons with an expected sleep quality score ≤ 6.5 will be defined as good sleep quality pattern.

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Almost 42.9% and 0.2% had poor and very poor sleep quality.

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Sleep quality, and habitual sleep efficiency components had the highest value of discrimination parameter.

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Component 6 and 7 play the lowest role in assessing sleep quality in the general population.

The BDS checklist as measure of illness severity: a cross-sectional cohort study in the Danish general population, primary care and specialised setting

OBJECTIVE

The bodily distress syndrome (BDS) checklist has proven to be useful in the diagnostic categorisation and as screening tool for functional somatic disorders (FSD). This study aims to investigate whether the BDS checklist total sum score (0-100) can be used as a measure of physical symptom burden and FSD illness severity.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional.

SETTING

Danish general population, primary care and specialised clinical setting.

PARTICIPANTS

A general population cohort (n=9656), a primary care cohort (n=2480) and a cohort of patients with multiorgan BDS from specialised clinical setting (n=492).

OUTCOME MEASURES

All data were self-reported. Physical symptoms were measured with the 25-item BDS checklist. Overall self-perceived health was measured with one item from the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Physical functioning was measured with an aggregate score of four items from the SF-36/SF-12 scales 'physical functioning', 'bodily pain' and 'vitality'. Emotional distress was measured with the mental distress subscale (SCL-8) from the Danish version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-90. Illness worry was measured with the six-item Whiteley Index.

RESULTS

For all cohorts, bifactor models established that despite some multidimensionality the total sum score of the BDS checklist adequately reflected physical symptom burden and illness severity. The BDS checklist had acceptable convergent validity with measures of overall health (r=0.25-0.58), physical functioning (r=0.22-0.58), emotional distress (r=0.47-0.62) and illness worry (r=0.36-0.55). Acceptability was good with a low number of missing responses to items (<3%). Internal consistency was high (α ≥0.879). BDS score means varied and reflected symptom burden across cohorts (13.03-46.15). We provide normative data for the Danish general population.

CONCLUSIONS

The BDS checklist total sum score can be used as a measure of symptom burden and FSD illness severity across settings. These findings establish the usefulness of the BDS checklist in clinics and in research, both as a diagnostic screening tool and as an instrument to assess illness severity.

Face individual identity recognition: a potential endophenotype in autism

BACKGROUND

Face individual identity recognition skill is heritable and independent of intellectual ability. Difficulties in face individual identity recognition are present in autistic individuals and their family members and are possibly linked to oxytocin polymorphisms in families with an autistic child. While it is reported that developmental prosopagnosia (i.e., impaired face identity recognition) occurs in 2-3% of the general population, no prosopagnosia prevalence estimate is available for autism. Furthermore, an autism within-group approach has not been reported towards characterizing impaired face memory and to investigate its possible links to social and communication difficulties.

METHODS

The present study estimated the prevalence of prosopagnosia in 80 autistic adults with no intellectual disability, investigated its cognitive characteristics and links to autism symptoms' severity, personality traits, and mental state understanding from the eye region by using standardized tests and questionnaires.

RESULTS

More than one third of autistic participants showed prosopagnosia. Their face memory skill was not associated with their symptom's severity, empathy, alexithymia, or general intelligence. Face identity recognition was instead linked to mental state recognition from the eye region only in autistic individuals who had prosopagnosia, and this relationship did not depend on participants' basic face perception skills. Importantly, we found that autistic participants were not aware of their face memory skills.

LIMITATIONS

We did not test an epidemiological sample, and additional work is necessary to establish whether these results generalize to the entire autism spectrum.

CONCLUSIONS

Impaired face individual identity recognition meets the criteria to be a potential endophenotype in autism. In the future, testing for face memory could be used to stratify autistic individuals into genetically meaningful subgroups and be translatable to autism animal models.

Birthweight predicts individual differences in adult face recognition ability

It has long been known that premature birth and/or low birthweight can lead to general difficulties in cognitive and emotional functioning throughout childhood. However, the influence of these factors on more specific processes has seldom been addressed, despite their potential to account for wide individual differences in performance that often appear innate. Here, we examined the influence of gestation and birthweight on adults' face perception and face memory skills. Performance on both sub-processes was predicted by birthweight and birthweight-for-gestation, but not gestation alone. Evidence was also found for the domain-specificity of these effects: No perinatal measure correlated with performance on object perception or memory tasks, but they were related to the size of the face inversion effect on the perceptual test. This evidence indicates a novel, very early influence on individual differences in face recognition ability, which persists into adulthood, influences face-processing strategy itself, and may be domain-specific.

Validation of the Career-Related Parental Support Scale (Chinese Version)

Our purpose in this study was to validate the existing Career-Related Parental Support Scale (CRPSS) for use with mainland Chinese students. We conducted two studies involving exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with samples of more than 1,000 technical education students in China. Based on the data obtained, we retained 24 out of 27 items in the original scale. We identified a bifactor model for the CRPSS (Chinese version), with a general factor of career-related parental support and four specific group factors—instrumental assistance, career-related modeling, verbal encouragement, and emotional support. Ancillary bifactor measures yielded adequate evidence of the reliability of the entire scale and each of the four subscales. We also found measurement invariance across genders, as well as gender differences in the latent variable of emotional support. Concurrent and convergent validity were supported. Implications for the use of CRPSS (Chinese version) for research and practice are suggested.

Semantic Interference Test: Evidence for Culture and Education Fairness from an Ethnically Diverse Sample in the USA

OBJECTIVE

Tests of cognitive abilities are particularly susceptible to culture-based bias because these abilities are culturally bound. The specific purpose of this study was to examine the Semantic Interference Test, a clinical neuropsychological test, for culture bias.

METHOD

The sample included 415 community-dwelling participants (mean age 74, SD = 8.32; 308 were females) living in South Florida (USA). The sample included 72 African Americans, 93 Afro-Caribbeans, 77 Hispanic Americans, and 173 European Americans. An Item Response Theory analysis of bias was employed using the Differential Item Functioning (DIF) procedure.

RESULTS

Overall, the items appear to be invariant across gender, ethnicity, and education levels. Although the DIF identified several items that appear to differ across the two latter groupings, the multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA) suggests that these items have low impact on the overall measure. There were however, meaningful differences across age groups in the MG-CFA, suggesting that an age adjustment might be required.

CONCLUSION

The SIT can be considered a cognitive test that is not significantly affected by the participants' cultural background, at least within the culture range included in this study.

A General Approach for Fitting Pure Exploratory Bifactor Models

This article proposes a procedure for fitting a pure exploratory bifactor solution in which the general factor is orthogonal to the group factors, but the loadings on the group factors can satisfy any orthogonal or oblique rotation criterion. The proposal combines orthogonal Procrustes rotations with analytical rotations and consists of a sequence of four steps. The basic input is a semispecified target matrix that can be (a) defined by the user, (b) obtained by using Schmid-Leiman orthogonalization, or (c) automatically built from a conventional unrestricted solution based on a prescribed number of factors. The relevance of the proposal and its advantages over existing procedures is discussed and assessed via simulation. Its feasibility in practice is illustrated with two empirical examples in the personality domain.

Tests of whole upright face processing in prosopagnosia: A literature review

Prosopagnosia refers to an acquired or developmental deficit in face recognition. This neuropsychological impairment has received increasing attention over the last decade, in particular because of an increased scientific interest in developmental prosopagnosia. Studies investigating prosopagnosia have used a variety of different clinical and experimental tests to assess face processing abilities. With such a large variety of assessment methods available, test selection can be challenging. Some previous works have aimed to provide an overview of tests used to diagnose prosopagnosia. However, no overview that is based on a structured review of the literature is available. We review the literature to identify tests that have been used to assess the processing of whole upright faces in acquired and developmental prosopagnosia over the last five years (2013-2017). We not only review tests that have been used for diagnostic purposes, but also tests that have been used for experimental purposes. Tests are categorised according to i) their experimental designs and, ii) the stage of face processing that they assess. On this basis, we discuss considerations regarding test designs for future studies. A visual illustration providing a structured overview of paradigms available for testing the processing of whole upright faces is provided. This visual illustration can be used to inform test selection when designing a study and to apply a structured approach to interpreting findings from the literature. The different approaches to assessment of face processing in prosopagnosia have been necessary and fruitful in generating data and hypotheses about the cause of face processing deficits. However, impairments at different levels of face processing have often been interpreted as reflecting a deficit in the recognition stage of face processing. Based on the data now available on prosopagnosia, we advocate for a more structured approach to assessment, which may facilitate a better understanding of the key deficits in prosopagnosia and of the level(s) of face processing that are impaired.

Greater reliance on the eye region predicts better face recognition ability

Interest in using individual differences in face recognition ability to better understand the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms supporting face processing has grown substantially in recent years. The goal of this study was to determine how varying levels of face recognition ability are linked to changes in visual information extraction strategies in an identity recognition task. To address this question, fifty participants completed six tasks measuring face and object processing abilities. Using the Bubbles method (Gosselin & Schyns, 2001), we also measured each individual's use of visual information in face recognition. At the group level, our results replicate previous findings demonstrating the importance of the eye region for face identification. More importantly, we show that face processing ability is related to a systematic increase in the use of the eye area, especially the left eye from the observer's perspective. Indeed, our results suggest that the use of this region accounts for approximately 20% of the variance in face processing ability. These results support the idea that individual differences in face processing are at least partially related to the perceptual extraction strategy used during face identification.

Limited evidence of individual differences in holistic processing in different versions of the part-whole paradigm

The part-whole paradigm was one of the first measures of holistic processing and it has been used to address several topics in face recognition, including its development, other-race effects, and more recently, whether holistic processing is correlated with face recognition ability. However the task was not designed to measure individual differences and it has produced measurements with low reliability. We created a new holistic processing test designed to measure individual differences based on the part-whole paradigm, the Vanderbilt Part Whole Test (VPWT). Measurements in the part and whole conditions were reliable, but, surprisingly, there was no evidence for reliable individual differences in the part-whole index (how well a person can take advantage of a face part presented within a whole face context compared to the part presented without a whole face) because part and whole conditions were strongly correlated. The same result was obtained in a version of the original part-whole task that was modified to increase its reliability. Controlling for object recognition ability, we found that variance in the whole condition does not predict any additional variance in face recognition over what is already predicted by performance in the part condition.

Diagnosing Prosopagnosia: The Utility of Visual Noise in the Cambridge Face Recognition Test

Adding visual noise to facial images has been used to increase reliance on configural processing. Whether this enhances the ability of tests to diagnose prosopagnosia is not known. We examined 15 subjects with developmental prosopagnosia, 13 subjects with acquired prosopagnosia, and 38 control subjects with the Cambridge Face Memory Test. We compared their performance on the second phase, without visual noise, and on the third phase, which adds visual noise. We analyzed the results with signal detection theory methods. The performance of controls worsened more than did that of prosopagnosic subjects when noise was added. The second phase showed better ability to discriminate between prosopagnosic and control subjects than did the third phase. For developmental prosopagnosia, a test using only the 48 trials of the first and second phases yielded sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 91% with a criterion of 33/48 correct, performance characteristics that are similar for a criterion of 43/72 for the whole test. We conclude that a shortened Cambridge Face Memory Test without the noisy images may be a quicker yet equally effective instrument for diagnosing prosopagnosia. The theoretical advantage of noisy images is outweighed by the poorer performance of control subjects with visual noise.

Mental Help Seeking Attitudes Scale (MHSAS): Development, reliability, validity, and comparison with the ATSPPH-SF and IASMHS-PO

Attitudes is a key help-seeking construct that influences treatment seeking behavior via intention to seek help, per the theory of planned behavior (TPB). This article presents the development and psychometric evaluation of the Mental Help Seeking Attitudes Scale (MHSAS), designed to measure respondents' overall evaluation (unfavorable vs. favorable) of their seeking help from a mental health professional. In Study 1 (N = 857 United States adults), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and item response theory (IRT) analysis were used to identify an optimal set of 9 items that demonstrated initial evidence of internal consistency, unidimensionality, and strong measurement equivalence/invariance (ME/I) across gender, past help-seeking experience, and psychological distress. Initial convergent evidence of validity was demonstrated via theoretically anticipated relationships between the MHSAS and key variables in the help-seeking nomological network (e.g., subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention, public stigma, self-stigma, anticipated risks and benefits, gender, previous help seeking). Initial incremental evidence of validity was demonstrated when the MHSAS demonstrated the ability to account for unique variance in help-seeking intention, beyond that accounted for by the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help-Short Form scale (ATSPPH-SF) and the Psychological Openness subscale of the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS-PO). Study 2 (N = 207 United States adults at Times 1 and 2) provided initial evidence of test-retest reliability over a 3-week period. The MHSAS offers mental health professionals a new tool for measuring attitudes that may avoid limitations of current help seeking-attitudes measures (e.g., construct-irrelevant variance). (PsycINFO Database Record

Individual differences in visual science: What can be learned and what is good experimental practice?

We all pass out our lives in private perceptual worlds. The differences in our sensory and perceptual experiences often go unnoticed until there emerges a variation (such as 'The Dress') that is large enough to generate different descriptions in the coarse coinage of our shared language. In this essay, we illustrate how individual differences contribute to a richer understanding of visual perception, but we also indicate some potential pitfalls that face the investigator who ventures into the field.

Individual differences in perceptual abilities in medical imaging: the Vanderbilt Chest Radiograph Test

Radiologists make many important decisions when detecting nodules on chest radiographs. While training can result in high levels of performance of this task, there could be individual differences in relevant perceptual abilities that are present pre-training. A pre-requisite to address this question is a valid and reliable measure of such abilities. The present work introduces a new measure, the Vanderbilt Chest Radiograph Test (VCRT), which aims to quantify individual differences in perceptual abilities for radiograph-related decision-making in novices. We validate the relevance of the test to diagnostic imaging by verifying radiologists’ superior performance on the test compared to novices’. The final VCRT version produces scores with acceptable internal consistency. Then, we investigate how the VCRT can be used in future research by evaluating how the test relates to extant measures of face and object recognition ability. We find that the VCRT shares a small but significant portion of its variance with a measure of novel object recognition, suggesting that some aspect of VCRT performance is driven by a domain-general visual ability.

Measuring nonvisual knowledge about object categories: The Semantic Vanderbilt Expertise Test

How much do people differ in their abilities to recognize objects, and what is the source of these differences? To address the first question, psychologists have created visual learning tests including the Cambridge Face Memory Test (Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006) and the Vanderbilt Expertise Test (VET; McGugin et al., 2012). The second question requires consideration of the influences of both innate potential and experience, but experience is difficult to measure. One solution is to measure the products of experience beyond perceptual knowledge-specifically, nonvisual semantic knowledge. For instance, the relation between semantic and perceptual knowledge can help clarify the nature of object recognition deficits in brain-damaged patients (Barton, Hanif, & Ashraf, Brain, 132, 3456-3466, 2009). We present a reliable measure of nonperceptual knowledge in a format applicable across categories. The Semantic Vanderbilt Expertise Test (SVET) measures knowledge of relevant category-specific nomenclature. We present SVETs for eight categories: cars, planes, Transformers, dinosaurs, shoes, birds, leaves, and mushrooms. The SVET demonstrated good reliability and domain-specific validity. We found partial support for the idea that the only source of domain-specific shared variance between the VET and SVET is experience with a category. We also demonstrated the utility of the SVET-Bird in experts. The SVET can facilitate the study of individual differences in visual recognition.

Gender differences in recognition of toy faces suggest a contribution of experience

When there is a gender effect, women perform better then men in face recognition tasks. Prior work has not documented a male advantage on a face recognition task, suggesting that women may outperform men at face recognition generally either due to evolutionary reasons or the influence of social roles. Here, we question the idea that women excel at all face recognition and provide a proof of concept based on a face category for which men outperform women. We developed a test of face learning to measures individual differences with face categories for which men and women may differ in experience, using the faces of Barbie dolls and of Transformers. The results show a crossover interaction between subject gender and category, where men outperform women with Transformers' faces. We demonstrate that men can outperform women with some categories of faces, suggesting that explanations for a general face recognition advantage for women are in fact not needed.

Differential item functioning analysis of the Vanderbilt Expertise Test for cars

The Vanderbilt Expertise Test for cars (VETcar) is a test of visual learning for contemporary car models. We used item response theory to assess the VETcar and in particular used differential item functioning (DIF) analysis to ask if the test functions the same way in laboratory versus online settings and for different groups based on age and gender. An exploratory factor analysis found evidence of multidimensionality in the VETcar, although a single dimension was deemed sufficient to capture the recognition ability measured by the test. We selected a unidimensional three-parameter logistic item response model to examine item characteristics and subject abilities. The VETcar had satisfactory internal consistency. A substantial number of items showed DIF at a medium effect size for test setting and for age group, whereas gender DIF was negligible. Because online subjects were on average older than those tested in the lab, we focused on the age groups to conduct a multigroup item response theory analysis. This revealed that most items on the test favored the younger group. DIF could be more the rule than the exception when measuring performance with familiar object categories, therefore posing a challenge for the measurement of either domain-general visual abilities or category-specific knowledge.

Experience moderates overlap between object and face recognition, suggesting a common ability

Some research finds that face recognition is largely independent from the recognition of other objects; a specialized and innate ability to recognize faces could therefore have little or nothing to do with our ability to recognize objects. We propose a new framework in which recognition performance for any category is the product of domain-general ability and category-specific experience. In Experiment 1, we show that the overlap between face and object recognition depends on experience with objects. In 256 subjects we measured face recognition, object recognition for eight categories, and self-reported experience with these categories. Experience predicted neither face recognition nor object recognition but moderated their relationship: Face recognition performance is increasingly similar to object recognition performance with increasing object experience. If a subject has a lot of experience with objects and is found to perform poorly, they also prove to have a low ability with faces. In a follow-up survey, we explored the dimensions of experience with objects that may have contributed to self-reported experience in Experiment 1. Different dimensions of experience appear to be more salient for different categories, with general self-reports of expertise reflecting judgments of verbal knowledge about a category more than judgments of visual performance. The complexity of experience and current limitations in its measurement support the importance of aggregating across multiple categories. Our findings imply that both face and object recognition are supported by a common, domain-general ability expressed through experience with a category and best measured when accounting for experience.