Implicit identification of irrelevant local objects interacts with global/local processing of hierarchical stimuli

AbstractSelecting relevant visual information in complex scenes by processing either global information or local parts helps us act efficiently within our environment and achieve goals. A global advantage (faster global than local processing) and global interference (global processing interferes with local processing) comprise an evidentiary global precedence phenomenon in early adulthood. However, the impact of healthy aging on this phenomenon remains unclear. As such, we collected behavioral data during a visual search task, including three-levels hierarchical stimuli (i.e., global, intermediate, and local levels) with several hierarchical distractors, in 50 healthy adults (26 younger (mean age: 26 years) and 24 older (mean age: 62 years)). Results revealed that processing information presented at the global and intermediate levels was independent of age. Conversely, older adults were slower for local processing compared to the younger adults, suggesting lower efficiency to deal with visual distractors during detail-oriented visual search. Although healthy older adults continued exhibiting a global precedence phenomenon, they were disproportionately less efficient during local aspects of information processing, especially when multiple visual information was displayed. Our results could have important implications for many life situations by suggesting that visual information processing is impacted by healthy aging, even with similar visual stimuli objectively presented.

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Hemispheric Differences for Global and Local Processing: Effect of Stimulus Size and Sparsity

The Spanish Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1017/s113874160000144x ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 21-31 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

María J. Blanca ◽

Gema López-Montiel

Keyword(s):

Right Hemisphere ◽

Local Information ◽

Stimulus Size ◽

Local Processing ◽

Hemispheric Differences ◽

Hierarchical Stimuli ◽

Global And Local ◽

Healthy Participants ◽

Local Levels ◽

Global And Local Processing

The present experiment was designed to assess the hemispheric differences for global and local processing in healthy participants under different conditions of stimuli visibility, by means of varying the size and sparsity. Three different sizes and three different matrixes of hierarchical stimuli were introduced. Stimuli consisted of incomplete squares with one side missing. Participants were asked to carry out an orientation classification task (left/right), indicating the orientation of the square opening either at global or local levels. The results do not support the hemispheric differences for global and local processing, showing the same efficiency of right and left hemispheres for analyzing global and local information. Nevertheless, other results found are consistent with the hypothesis of right hemisphere superiority under degraded stimulus conditions.

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How the forest interacts with the trees: Multiscale shape integration explains global and local processing

10.1101/777110 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Georgin Jacob ◽

S. P. Arun

Keyword(s):

Linear Models ◽

Search Task ◽

Visual Search Task ◽

Feature Representation ◽

Local Processing ◽

Intrinsic Properties ◽

Hierarchical Stimuli ◽

Global And Local ◽

Global Advantage ◽

Global And Local Processing

ABSTRACTHierarchical stimuli (such as a circle made of diamonds) have been widely used to study global and local processing. Two classic phenomena have been observed using these stimuli: the global advantage effect (that we identify the circle faster than the diamonds) and the incongruence effect (that we identify the circle faster when both global and local shapes are circles). Understanding them has been difficult because they occur during shape detection, where an unknown categorical judgement is made on an unknown feature representation.Here we report two essential findings. First, these phenomena are present both in a general same-different task and a visual search task, suggesting that they may be intrinsic properties of the underlying representation. Second, in both tasks, responses were explained using linear models that combined multiscale shape differences and shape distinctiveness. Thus, global and local processing can be understood as properties of a systematic underlying feature representation.

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The Effect of Element Spacing on Hemispheric Asymmetries for Global/Local Processing

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.56.5.321 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 56 (5) ◽

pp. 321-328 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jan Schlösser ◽

Ronald Hübner ◽

Tobias Studer

Keyword(s):

Visual Field ◽

Mental Representation ◽

Local Processing ◽

Global Information ◽

Hemispheric Asymmetries ◽

Hierarchical Stimuli ◽

The Right ◽

Congruency Condition

In several studies with hierarchical stimuli it has been shown that the left and the right hemispheres are specialized for the processing of local and global information, respectively. However, although corresponding visual-field (VF) effects regularly show up for incongruent stimuli, they are often absent for congruent ones. In this study, it was investigated whether the spacing between the elements of the stimuli has any effect on this phenomenon. Therefore, in Experiment 1, stimuli with narrowly spaced elements were applied. As a result, VF-effects occurred independently of the congruency condition. For comparison, stimuli with wider element spacing were used in Experiment 2. Under these conditions, VF-effects occurred again, as expected, only for incongruent stimuli. These results show that element spacing can have an effect on VF-effects. The results are interpreted in the sense that narrowly spaced elements are perceived as texture, which always leads to an elaborate mental representation of the stimulus that differs between the hemispheres.

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The role of parietal cortex in global/local processing of hierarchical stimuli: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study

Neuroreport ◽

10.1097/wnr.0b013e3282f1c9d2 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 18 (18) ◽

pp. 1921-1924 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Jungang Qin ◽

Shihui Han

Keyword(s):

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽

Parietal Cortex ◽

Magnetic Stimulation ◽

Local Processing ◽

Hierarchical Stimuli

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Do You Want to See the Tree? Ignore the Forest

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000240 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 61 (3) ◽

pp. 205-214 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Nicolas Poirel ◽

Claire Sara Krakowski ◽

Sabrina Sayah ◽

Arlette Pineau ◽

Olivier Houdé ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Recognition ◽

Local Level ◽

Local Information ◽

Visual Environment ◽

Global Information ◽

Focus Attention ◽

Global Level ◽

Hierarchical Stimuli ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

The One

The visual environment consists of global structures (e.g., a forest) made up of local parts (e.g., trees). When compound stimuli are presented (e.g., large global letters composed of arrangements of small local letters), the global unattended information slows responses to local targets. Using a negative priming paradigm, we investigated whether inhibition is required to process hierarchical stimuli when information at the local level is in conflict with the one at the global level. The results show that when local and global information is in conflict, global information must be inhibited to process local information, but that the reverse is not true. This finding has potential direct implications for brain models of visual recognition, by suggesting that when local information is conflicting with global information, inhibitory control reduces feedback activity from global information (e.g., inhibits the forest) which allows the visual system to process local information (e.g., to focus attention on a particular tree).

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