Asia has the global advantage: Race and visual attention

Abstract

In studies of visual attention, and related aspects of cognition, race (continent/s of ancestry) of participants is typically not reported, implying that authors consider this variable irrelevant to outcomes. However, there exist several findings of perceptual differences between East Asians and Caucasian Westerners that can be interpreted as relative differences in global versus local distribution of attention. Here, we used Navon figures (e.g., large E made up of small Vs) to provide the first direct comparison of global-local processing using a standard method from the attention literature. Relative to Caucasians, East Asians showed a strong global advantage. Further, this extended to the second generation (Asian-Australians), although weakened compared to recent immigrants. Our results argue participants' race should be reported in all studies about, or involving, visual attention to spatially distributed stimuli: to continue to ignore race risks adding noise to data and/or drawing invalid theoretical conclusions by mixing functionally distinct populations.

Culture modulates the temporal dynamics of global/local processing

“…In a series of studies, it has been consistently demonstrated that WC observers attend to and process more effectively local features, while EA observers exhibit a global attention bias (McKone et al 2010;Nisbett and Miyamoto 2005;Hedden et al 2008;Kitayama et al 2003). For example, Kitayama et al (2003) presented Westerners and Esterners a vertical line within a square frame and subsequently asked the observers to report the length of the line (i.e., rod-and-frame task).…”

“…EA observers are also more distracted by unrelated global information and faster at detecting targets at the global level compared to Westerners (Boduroglu et al 2009;Petrova et al 2013), which suggest they might have a global selective attention bias. Within this framework yet, McKone et al (2010) used Navon stimuli to directly quantify the global/local attention bias between Westerners and Easterners. Navon figures are hierarchical stimuli comprising a large global shape constituted by small local shapes (Navon 1977).…”

“…Navon figures are hierarchical stimuli comprising a large global shape constituted by small local shapes (Navon 1977). One of the main advantages of these images lies in that participants viewing the very same stimulus (thus perfectly matched in terms of low-level visual properties) can be cued or can show a visual preference to either the local or global elements (McKone et al 2010;Navon 1977). Interestingly, McKone et al (2010) reported that only East Asian observers identified target letters faster when they were appearing at the global level.…”

“…One of the main advantages of these images lies in that participants viewing the very same stimulus (thus perfectly matched in terms of low-level visual properties) can be cued or can show a visual preference to either the local or global elements (McKone et al 2010;Navon 1977). Interestingly, McKone et al (2010) reported that only East Asian observers identified target letters faster when they were appearing at the global level. These authors attributed this performance advantage to a more effective global-selective attention in EA compared to WC observers (McKone et al 2010).…”

“…Interestingly, McKone et al (2010) reported that only East Asian observers identified target letters faster when they were appearing at the global level. These authors attributed this performance advantage to a more effective global-selective attention in EA compared to WC observers (McKone et al 2010).…”