Investigating the stability of and relationships among global/local processing measures

Abstract

Global/local stimuli have been used to estimate global processing biases in individuals and groups, as well as in response to various manipulations. Throughout the literature, multiple different versions of global/local stimuli have been used, such as traditional hierarchical letters and numbers (i.e., Navon letters), abstract hierarchical shapes, and high- and low-spatial-frequency gratings and faces. However, currently it is unclear how reliable or stable performance is on these measures within individuals over time, and whether these seemingly different measures are tapping into the same underlying process. As such, the purpose of the present study was to examine the stability of individual performance on three distinct global/local measures over time and to examine the relationships among the measures. In two studies, we examined the reliability of the biases within, and the relationships among, standard Navon letters in a traditional interference task, hierarchical shapes in a forced choice task, and superimposed high- and low-pass spatial frequency faces in a forced choice task. In both studies, participants completed all three of the tasks, and then returned 7-10 days later to again complete the same tasks. The degree of global/local bias within an individual was found to be highly reliable in the hierarchical shape task and the spatial frequency face task, but less reliable in the traditional Navon letter task. Interestingly, in both studies we found that none of the three measures of global bias were related to each other. Therefore, while these measures do appear to be reliable over time, they may be tapping into distinct aspects of global/local processing.

Multiple measures of dispositional global/local bias predict attentional blink magnitude

“…Although Dale and Arnell (2010) clearly showed a relationship between dispositional global/local bias and AB performance, the Navon letter task has recently been shown to be one of the least reliable measures of global/local processing (see Dale & Arnell, 2013a). As such, it is possible that the relationship between global/local bias and the AB has been underestimated.…”

“…Importantly, this bias is reliable over more than a week (Dale & Arnell, 2013a). Thus, global/local tasks are an excellent tool for examining individual differences in attention breadth.…”

“…As such, it is possible that the relationship between global/local bias and the AB has been underestimated. In addition, Dale and Arnell (2013a) showed that three measures of global/local processing are uncorrelated with each other (i.e., the Navon letter task, the hierarchical shape task, and a high/low spatial frequency face task). This raises the possibility that these tasks may be measuring different aspects of global/ local processing, and that the AB may be related to something unique to the Navon letter task.…”

“…To examine this possibility, Experiment 1 of the current study was conducted to attempt to replicate the finding of Dale and Arnell (2010) using a more reliable individual differences measure of global/local processing. The ideal task is the hierarchical shape task developed by Kimchi and Palmer (1982), as it has been shown to be highly reliable over time (Dale & Arnell, 2013a), and is a straightforward measure of global/local bias. Experiment 2 was conducted to examine whether the three global/local tasks used by Dale and Arnell (2013a) could each predict AB performance both on their own, and when combined into a single composite global/local measure.…”

“…The ideal task is the hierarchical shape task developed by Kimchi and Palmer (1982), as it has been shown to be highly reliable over time (Dale & Arnell, 2013a), and is a straightforward measure of global/local bias. Experiment 2 was conducted to examine whether the three global/local tasks used by Dale and Arnell (2013a) could each predict AB performance both on their own, and when combined into a single composite global/local measure. For example, if breadth of attention is related to the AB, and each of the three tasks measures a different unique aspect of breadth of attention, then we would expect unique relationships between the AB and each of the tasks, and that an overall score that includes all tasks may be a particularly effective predictor of the AB.…”