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occipital lobe

the most posterior (rearward) subdivision of each cerebral hemisphere, roughly shaped like a pyramid and lying under the skull’s occipital bone. It contains several visual areas that receive and process visual stimuli, and it is involved in basic visual functions (e.g., visual acuity; contrast sensitivity; perception of color, form, and motion) as well as higher level ones (e.g., figure-ground segregation based on textural cues). A region of it, the occipital face area (OFA), has been identified as crucial to face recognition. See also fusiform gyrus.

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Psychology term of the day

April 25th 2024

neonativism

neonativism

n. the belief that much cognitive knowledge, such as object permanence and certain aspects of language, is innate, requiring little in the way of specific experiences to be expressed. Neonativists hold that cognitive development is influenced by biological constraints and that individuals are predisposed to process certain types of information. Also called structural constraint theory. —neonativist adj., n.