Sensitivity to Phonological Similarity Within and Across Languages

The influence of phonological similarity on bilingual language processing was examined within and across languages in three experiments. Phonological similarity was manipulated within a language by varying neighborhood density, and across languages by varying extent of cross-linguistic overlap between native and non-native languages. In Experiment 1, speed and accuracy of bilinguals’ picture naming were susceptible to phonological neighborhood density in both the first and the second language. In Experiment 2, eye-movement patterns indicated that the time-course of language activation varied across phonological neighborhood densities and across native/non-native language status. In Experiment 3, speed and accuracy of bilingual performance in an auditory lexical decision task were influenced by degree of cross-linguistic phonological overlap. Together, the three experiments confirm that bilinguals are sensitive to phonological similarity within and across languages and suggest that this sensitivity is asymmetrical across native and non-native languages and varies along the timecourse of word processing.     

Seeing women as objects: The sexual body part recognition bias

Objectification theory suggests that the bodies of women are sometimes reduced to their sexual body parts. As well, an extensive literature in cognitive psychology suggests that global processing underlies person recognition, whereas local processing underlies object recognition. Integrating these literatures, we introduced and tested the sexual body part recognition bias hypothesis that women's (versus men's) bodies would be reduced to their sexual body parts in the minds of perceivers. Specifically, we adopted the parts versus whole body recognition paradigm, which is a robust indicator of local versus global processing. The findings across two experiments showed that women's bodies were reduced to their sexual body parts in perceivers' minds. We also found that local processing contributed to the sexual body part recognition bias, whereas global processing tempered it. Implications for sexual objectification and its underlying processes and motives are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transfer effects from language processing to visual attention dynamics: The impact of orthographic transparency

The consistency between letters and sounds varies across languages. These differences have been proposed to be associated with different reading mechanisms (lexical vs. phonological), processing grain sizes (coarse vs. fine) and attentional windows (whole words vs. individual letters). This study aimed to extend this idea to writing to dictation. For that purpose, we evaluated whether the use of different types of processing has a differential impact on local windowing attention: phonological (local) processing in a transparent language (Spanish) and lexical (global) processing of an opaque language (English). Spanish and English monolinguals (Experiment 1) and Spanish–English bilinguals (Experiment 2) performed a writing to dictation task followed by a global–local task. The first key performance showed a critical dissociation between languages: the response times (RTs) from the Spanish writing to dictation task was modulated by word length, whereas the RTs from the English writing to dictation task was modulated by word frequency and age of acquisition, as evidence that language transparency biases processing towards phonological or lexical strategies. In addition, after a Spanish task, participants more efficiently processed local information, which resulted in both the benefit of global congruent information and the reduced cost of incongruent global information. Additionally, the results showed that bilinguals adapt their attentional processing depending on the orthographic transparency.     

Do the global advantage and interference effects covary?

The global precedence hypothesis has been operationally defined as a faster or earlier processing of the global than of the local properties of an image (global advantage) and as interference by processing at the global level with processing at the local level (global interference). Navon (1977) proposed an association between the global advantage and interference effects. Other studies have shown a dissociation between the two effects (e.g., Lamb & Robertson, 1988). It seems that the controversy in previous research resulted from not equalizing the eccentricities of global and local properties. In the present study, the eccentricities of the two levels were equalized by using stimuli with all their elements located along their perimeters. The results of the first experiment demonstrated that although the global level was identified faster than the local level in both the central and the peripheral locations of the visual field (global advantage), the pattern of global interference varied across the visual field. Consistency of global and local levels increased the speed of processing of the local level displayed at the center of the visual field but slowed down the processing of that level at peripheral locations. The results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that it was most likely that the variation in the pattern of global interference was determined by the variable of eccentricity, rather than by the sizes of the global and local levels.     

Attention to local form information can prevent access to semantic information.

Humphreys and Boucart (1997) have shown that when processing of local form is required for response, surrounding global information is automatically processed to a semantic level. The generality of this effect was investigated in two experiments in which the perceptual load of the relevant local form information was manipulated, as was uncertainty about perceptual load. Participants attended to a single line segment inside a picture of an animal or a vehicle and then decided which of two pictures in the target/distractor display that followed contained a line segment that matched the first in orientation. The perceptual load of the relevant local form information was either low (the matching line segment was one of the solitary line segments presented in the centre ofthe target and distractor pictures), or high (the matching line segment was part of one of the solitary letters presented in the centre of the target and distractor pictures). The semantic relations among the pictures were manipulated, and when perceptual load remained constant across trials, semantic relations affected performance in the low-load but not in the high-load condition. When perceptual load varied from trial to trial, there was no evidence of any semantic processing on either low- or high-load trials. The results suggest that in form-matching tasks, attentional priority can be given to local information, thus preventing access to semantic information derived from global shape. They further suggest that the distribution of attention is not dictated entirely by the actual perceptual demands of the relevant stimulus, indicating an important role for top-down processing.     

Individual differences in infant fixation duration: Dominance of global versus local stimulus properties

In three experiments, the dominance of global versus local visual properties was investigated in 4-month-old infants as a function of individual differences in fixation duration (i.e., “long-” versus “short-looking” infants). Dominance was assessed through paired-comparison discrimination tasks in which global and local visual properties were placed in competition with one another for infants' attention. Familiarization time was varied parametrically across experiments. Short-looking infants showed responses consistent with a global-to-local sequence of processing: dominance for the global attribute was supplanted by dominance for the local attribute as familiarization was extended. Long-looking infants, however, did not show dominance for either visual property until after considerable familiarization. When dominance was observed for this group, it was for the local visual attribute. These findings are in accord with previous observations that long-looking infants process visual information more slowly than short-looking infants, but further suggest that there may be qualitative differences in the manner in which the two groups of infants attend to the properties of visual stimuli. Links between this finding and the long-term predictive validity of fixation duration are discussed.     

Cross-language negative priming remains intact,while positive priming disappears: evidence for two sources of selective inhibition

In the current experiments, within- and between-language primed lexical decision tasks with Twi-English bilinguals were used. The aim was to explore the priming effects produced by attended and ignored words, in an effort to draw theoretical and empirical parallels and differences between the mechanisms of excitation and inhibition and to isolate the different circumstances in which these mechanisms operate in bilingual language processing. In the within-language (Twi) experiment, facilitatory (positive) priming resulted when a prime word and subsequent probe target word were identical, whereas delayed decisions to probe targets (negative priming) ensued when the ignored prime word was conceptually identical to the subsequent probe target word. In contrast, while the between-language (Twi-English) experiments replicated the ignored repetition negative priming effect, no evidence of positive priming was observed. These between-language findings undermine episodic retrieval models of selective attention that discount inhibitory processes in negative priming paradigms. Instead, our findings substantiate inhibition-based accounts by showing that there are two sources of inhibition operating at the local word and global language levels of abstraction. The findings also support bilingual language representations in which the words of the two languages are integrated.     

A structural account of global and local processing

The order of processing, whether global forms are processed prior to local forms or vice versa, has been of considerable interest. Many current theories hold that the more perceptually conspicuous form is identified first. An alternative view is presented here in which the stuctural relations among elements are an important factor in explaining the relative speeds of global and local processing. We equated the conspicuity of the global and local forms in three experiments and still found advantages in the processing of global forms. Subjects were able to process the relations among the elements quickly, even before the elements themselves were identified. According to our alternative view, subjects created equivalence classes of similar and proximate local elements before identifying the constituent elements. The experiments required subjects to decide whether two displays were the same or different, and consequently, the results are relevant to work in higher-level cognition that stresses the importance of comparison processes (e.g., analogy and conceptual combination). We conclude by evaluating related work in higher-level cognition in light of our findings.     

Hierarchical forms processing in adults and children

Two experiments examined child and adult processing of hierarchical stimuli composed of geometric forms. Adults (ages 18-23 years) and children (ages 7-10 years) performed a forced-choice task gauging similarity between visual stimuli consisting of large geometric objects (global level) composed of small geometric objects (local level). The stimuli spatial arrangement was manipulated to assess child and adult reaction times and predisposition toward local or global form categorization under two distinct trial conditions, with varied density of the local forms comprising the global forms. In Experiment 1, children and adults were presented with common, simple geometric shape hierarchical forms composed of ovals and rectangles. In Experiment 2, adults were presented with hierarchical forms composed of the simple geometric shapes, ovals and rectangles, and additional novel complex geometric shapes, “posts” and “arches.” Results show a clear increase of global processing bias across the age ranges of the individuals in the study, with children at 10 years performing similarly to adults on the simple stimuli. In addition, adults presented with the novel complex geometric shapes showed a significant reduction in global processing bias, indicating that form novelty and complexity lead to additional attention to local features in categorization tasks.     

The magic spell of language: linguistic categories and their perceptual consequences

Language is a tool that directs attention to different aspects of reality. Using participants from the same linguistic community, the authors demonstrate in 4 studies that metasemantic features of linguistic categories influence basic perceptual processes. More specifically, the hypothesis that abstract versus concrete language leads to a more global versus local perceptual focus was supported across 4 experiments, in which participants used (Experiment 1) or were primed either supraliminally (Experiments 2 and 3) or subliminally (Experiment 4) with abstract (adjectives) or concrete (verbs) terms. Participants were shown to display a global versus specific perceptual focus (Experiments 1 and 4), more versus less inclusiveness of categorization (Experiments 2 and 3), and incorporation of more rather than less contextual information (Experiment 3). The implications of this new perspective toward the language-perception interface are discussed in the context of the general linguistic relativity debate.     

Imageability and word recognition in the left and right visual fields: a signal detection analysis

Identifying the information processing constraints that determine whether or not imagery moderates visual field asymmetries is essential for constructing a dynamic model of hemispheric interaction during language processing. In this investigation, we manipulated the global experimental context in which imageable and nonimageable words were presented by contrasting mixed and blocked word lists using a lateralized lexical decision task. Signal detection analyses were employed to assess whether global stimulus context and imageability differentially affect word discriminability (d prime) and response bias (log beta) across visual fields. Both discriminability and response bias varied with imageability and stimulus context, but to a comparable extent across visual fields. This suggests that both hemispheres are sensitive to the global context in which words are presented, and can adjust processing based not only on semantic characteristics of the words themselves, but also on the variability of items in the stimulus environment.     

Age-related differences in selection by visual saliency

We examined the ability of older adults to select local and global stimuli varying in perceptual saliency—a task requiring nonspatial visual selection. Participants were asked to identify in separate blocks a target at either the global or the local level of a hierarchical stimulus, while the saliency of each level was varied (across different conditions, either the local or the global form was the more salient and relatively easier to identify). Older adults were less efficient than young adults in ignoring distractors that were higher in saliency than were targets, and this occurred across both the global and local levels of form. The increased effects of distractor saliency on older adults occurred even when the effects were scaled by overall differences in task performance. The data provide evidence for an age-related decline in nonspatial attentional selection of low-salient hierarchical stimuli, not determined by the (global or local) level at which selection was required. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding both the interaction between saliency and hierarchical processing and the effects of aging on nonspatial visual attention.     

Processing global information in briefly presented pictures

Summary The effect on object recognition of the processing of the global information in contextually coherent scenes was investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1 subjects saw 100 ms presentations of line drawings containing objects that were either usual or unusual given the picture context. Following each exposure they were required to select from among four objects the one that had been contained in the scene. The consistency of the three distractor alternatives with the meaning of the picture was varied. Recognition accuracy was poor for unusual objects and when the distractors were consistent with the picture meaning and did not substantially differ from the performance of subjects who selected response alternatives after being provided with a theme of the picture, without actually viewing the pictures. This supports the conclusion that subjects were responding on the basis of the global information but not the local object information in the pictures. When the exposure duration was increased to 2 s (Experiment 2), processing of local information was apparent for both usual and unusual objects but effects of the global information were still evident.     

Do response time advantage and interference reflect the order of processing of global- and local-level information?

Navon's (1977) global precedence hypothesis was based primarily on the joint occurrence of two effects: a response time (RT) advantage for identifying global targets, and interference by global distractors on responding to local targets. Although the hypothesis has been questioned on the basis of experiments in which it has been shown that a local RT advantage and local interference can occur, it is still frequently assumed that these two effects are a valid measure of the order in which local and global levels of structure are processed. In the present experiment, this assumption was examined. Subjects identified target letters that occurred randomly at the global or local level in a divided-attention task. The visual angle subtended by the stimulus pattern was varied, a manipulation known to affect the relative speed of response to local- or global-level information. Local targets were identified faster than global targets at the larger visual angles, but there was no difference in RT at the smallest visual angle. Despite this change in RT advantage, the interference effect did not change as a function of the visual angle of the stimulus pattern. Moreover, global distractors interfered with responding to local targets but local targets had no effect on responding to global targets, which is exactly the opposite of the finding one would expect if RT advantage and interference reflected order of processing. These findings are not consistent with the assumption that RT advantage and interference reflect order of processing in a simple way.     

Task related modulation of the motor system during language processing

Recent neurophysiological and brain imaging studies have shown that the motor system is involved in language processing. However, it is an open question whether this involvement is a necessary requisite to understand language or rather a side effect of distinct cognitive processes underlying it. In order to clarify this issue we carried out three behavioral experiments, using a go-no go paradigm. Italian verbs expressing hand actions, foot actions or an abstract content served as stimuli. Participants used their right hands to respond. In Experiment 1, in which a semantics decision task with an early delivery of the go signal (during processing language material) was used, slower responses were found for hand action-related verbs than for foot action-related verbs. In Experiment 2, using the same task with either an early or a delayed delivery of the go signal (when language material had been already processed), no difference was found between responses to the two verb categories in the delayed delivery condition. In Experiment 3, in which a lexical decision task with an early delivery of the go signal was used, again no difference between the two verb categories was found. The present findings demonstrate that during language processing the modulation of the motor system crucially occurs while performing a semantics decision task, thus supporting the notion that this involvement is a necessary step to understand language rather than a side effect of upstream cognitive processes.     

Local-global processing in early-onset schizophrenia: evidence for an impairment in shifting the spatial scale of attention

In this study we report the results of two experiments on visual attention conducted with patients with early-onset schizophrenia. These experiments investigated the effect of irrelevant spatial-scale information upon the processing of relevant spatial-scale information, and the ability to shift the spatial scale of attention, across consecutive trials, between different levels of the hierarchical stimulus. Twelve patients with early-onset schizophrenia and matched controls performed local-global tasks under: (1) directed attention conditions with a consistency manipulation and (2) divided-attention conditions. In the directed-attention paradigm, the early-onset patients exhibited the normal patterns of global advantage and interference, and were not unduly affected by the consistency manipulation. Under divided-attention conditions, however, the early-onset patients exhibited a local-processing deficit. The source of this local processing deficit lay in the prolonged reaction time to local targets, when these had been preceded by a global target, but not when preceded by a local target. These findings suggest an impaired ability to shift the spatial scale of attention from a global to a local spatial scale in early-onset schizophrenia.     

Testing a queue hypothesis for the processing of global and local information.

To test whether the advantage for global features in visual perception is stationary throughout the course of processing or is superseded by a local advantage, 6 experiments were conducted in which subjects responded to auditorially presented letter names, while viewing compound visual stimuli. The consistencies of the 2 levels of the compound letters with the auditory stimuli were varied. The requirement with respect to the visual stimulus was manipulated between experiments. The onset asynchrony (SOA) between the visual stimulus and the auditory one was randomized within blocks. Interaction of SOA with consistency of either of the globality levels with the auditory stimulus would indicate lack of stationarity. No such indication was found. Several findings suggest global advantage. The results hold across 3 exposure durations. Findings support the hypothesis of global precedence as well as the claim that it is stationary.     

Broken agreement

The subjects and verbs of English sentences agree in number. This superficially simple syntactic operation is regularly implemented by speakers, but occasionally derails in sentences such as The cost of the improvements have not yet been estimated. We examined whether the incidence of such errors was related to the presence of subject-like semantic features in the immediate preverbal nouns, in light of current questions about the semantic versus syntactic nature of sentence subjects and the interactivity of language processing. In three experiments, speakers completed sentence fragments designed to elicit erroneous agreement. We varied the number and animacy of the head noun and the immediate preverbal (local) noun, as well as the amount of material separating the head noun from the verb. The plurality of the local noun phrase had a large and reliable effect on the incidence of agreement errors, but neither its animacy nor its length affected their occurrence. The latter findings suggest, respectively, that the semantic features of sentence subjects are of minimal relevance to the syntactic and morphological processes that implement agreement, and that agreement features are specified at a point in processing where the eventual length of sentential constituents has little effect on syntactic planning. Both results follow naturally from explanations of language production that emphasize the segregation of sentence formulation processes into relatively autonomous components.     

Segmentation and selection contribute to local processing in hierarchical analysis.

The present study examined the role of segmentation and selection processes when we respond to local elements in hierarchical stimuli. The ease of segmentation and selection of an individual local element from hierarchical patterns was manipulated by making one local element substantially distinct from the others in colour. Experiment 1 showed that, when attention was spread across the global and local levels in a divided attention task, the introduction of the local red element speeded responses to local targets but slowed responses when targets appeared at the global level. Experiment 2 used a selective attention task in which subjects responded only to the local or the global shapes across a block of trials. Under these circumstances, the local red element reduced global-to-local interference in addition to speeding local responses. The results suggest that the efficiency with which local elements are segmented and selected affects responses to local aspects of hierarchical patterns; furthermore, the effect of local pop-out on global processing is contingent on top-down attentional control settings.     

Rethinking the concepts of ‘local or global processors’: evidence from Williams syndrome,Down syndrome,and Autism Spectrum Disorders

Both Williams syndrome (WS) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been characterized as preferentially processing local information, whereas in Down syndrome (DS) the reported tendency is to process stimuli globally. We designed a cross‐syndrome, cross‐task comparison to reveal similarities and differences in local/global processing in these disorders. Our in‐depth study compared local/global processing across modalities (auditory‐verbal/visuo‐spatial) and levels of processing (high/low) in the three syndromes. Despite claims in the literature, participants with ASD or WS failed to show a consistent local processing bias, while those with DS failed to show a reliable global processing bias. Depending on the nature of the stimuli and the task, both local and global processing biases were evident in all three neurodevelopmental disorders. These findings indicate that individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders cannot simply be characterized as local or global processors.