Abstract
Does the global precedence effect depend on the goodness of the global form and low spatial frequencies? In Experiments 1 and 2, under a variety of attentional and task conditions, a global advantage in response time (RT) occurred in “good,” many-element compound patterns but not in “poor,” few-element patterns (unless the local elements were too small to be easily recognized). Symmetric interference effects were found in all patterns, however, suggesting that global and local information were encoded in parallel and that the global advantage in RT involved some postperceptual processes. Experiments 3A and 3B showed that the global advantage in RT and perceived pattern goodness depend on low spatial frequencies: Lowpass-filtered patterns rated as “good” showed the usual global advantage in RT, but highpass-filtered, many-element forms rated as “poor” did not. These findings suggest that a global advantage in RT requires an unambiguous global form conveyed by low spatial frequencies.
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The research and preparation of the manuscript were supported by NICHD Grant HD05331 to Peter D. Eimas and by NTMH Post-Doctoral Training Grant MH16745 to Linda L. LaGasse. This research was based on a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of a doctoral degree at Brown University.
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Lagasse, L.L. Effects of good form and spatial frequency on global precedence. Perception & Psychophysics 53, 89–105 (1993). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211718
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211718