Short article: The effects of precedence on Navon-induced processing bias in face recognition

Abstract

Macrae and Lewis (2002) showed that repeated reporting of the global dimension of Navon stimuli improved performance in a subsequent face identification task, whilst reporting the features of the Navon stimuli impaired performance. Using a face composite task, which is assumed to require featural processing, Weston and Perfect (2005) showed the complementary pattern: Featural responding to Navon letters speeded performance. However, both studies used Navon stimuli with global precedence, in which the overall configuration is easier to report than the features. Here we replicate the two studies above, whilst manipulating the precedence (global or featural) of the letter stimuli in the orientation task. Both studies replicated the previously reported findings with global precedence stimuli, but showed the reverse pattern with local precedence stimuli. These data raise important questions as to what is transferred between the Navon orientation task and the face-processing tasks that follow.

The effects of local and global processing orientation on eyewitness identification performance

“…That is, global orientation to spaced Navon letters impairs subsequent line-up performance, while local orientation improves it (Perfect, Weston, Dennis, & Snell, 2007). Thus, in this particular study, distribution of attention over a broader area impairs face recognition, contrary to the attention distribution hypothesis.…”

Local Navon letter processing affects skilled behavior: A golf-putting experiment

“…Normally the global letter of the Navon stimulus is more obvious than the local letter, which results in the Navon stimulus having global precedence. Perfect, Weston, Dennis and Snell (2008) replicated the methodology of previous studies using the Navon stimuli, but manipulated the precedence of the letter stimuli such that they had either global or local precedence. It was found that face Navon effects in golf performance 9 recognition was impaired in the conditions in which participants had to ignore the letter with precedence.…”

“…According to Perfect et al (2008), the Navon effect should occur for any task that is processed in an automatic manner, but can also be encoded in a controlled and analytic style if necessary. The present study investigated whether performing the Navon letteridentification task would affect golf performance.…”

“…Put simply, the Navon effect on recognition performance can be reversed if the Navon stimuli have local precedence. Perfect et al (2008) proposed that responding to the non-dominant aspect of the Navon stimuli requires a transfer from automatic to controlled processing, whereas responding to the dominant aspect of the Navon stimuli requires no such shift, favoring automatic processing (Perfect et al, 2008). It is this transfer to controlled processing that carries over into the face recognition task and leads to the detriment in performance in a task that is normally carried out as an automatic process.…”

“…The verbal-overshadowing and the localNavon task each interfere with this automatic processing leading to the more controlled processing and hence poorer performance. Exactly why these tasks interfere with automatic processing remains unclear but it is likely that it has something to do with suppression (Lewis, 2006;Perfect et al, 2008).…”