The Effect of Induced Processing Orientation on a Holistic-Analytic Thinking Task

Many cross cultural studies have mentioned two distinct forms of thinking, holistic and analytic thought, and argued that one of the crucial differences between them is their attentional focus on focal object and its context. Furthermore, in face recognition studies, it has been replicated that face recognition is a configural process and is fostered by prior global processing orientation. The present study explores a possible link between global-local processing bias and holistic-analytic ways of thinking. One hundred twenty three Japanese participants completed either classification or similarity judgement tasks based on categories in which the contextual information conflicted with abstract rules, after processing orientation was manipulated by Navon stimuli. Results showed that participants preferred familyresemblance (i.e. holistic) solution to rule-based solution, and that manipulating the precedence (global, local, or mixed) Navon stimuli did not affect overall response pattern. However, prior local orientation slowed response latencies more than did global orientation. It may imply that preceding global-local processing orientation influences focus on the focal object and thus modifies our ways of reasoning.