Faces are represented in a more configural or holistic manner than other objects. Substantial evidence indicates that this representation results from face-specific mechanisms, but some have argued that it is produced by configural mechanisms that can be applied to many objects including words. The face-specific hypothesis predicts that non-face configural processes will often be normal in pros...

The visuo-spatial abilities of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have consistently been shown to be generally weak. These poor visuo-spatial abilities have been ascribed to a local processing bias by some [R. Rossen, E.S. Klima, U. Bellugi, A. Bihrle, W. Jones, Interaction between language and cognition: evidence from Williams syndrome, in: J. Beitchman, N. Cohen, M. Konstantareas, R. Tan...

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by distressing and often debilitating preoccupations with misperceived defects in appearance. Research suggests that aberrant visual processing may contribute to these misperceptions. This study used two tasks to probe global and local visual processing as well as set-shifting in individuals with BDD. Eighteen unmedicated individuals with BDD and ...

Research has shown that face recognition accuracy can be improved by prior global processing and impaired by prior local processing (Macrae & Lewis, 2002). The aim of this study was to test the processing bias account of face recognition, using the composite face task (Young, Hellawell, & Hay, 1987), a test of featural recognition. Undergraduate volunteers (N = 75) participated in a between-sub...

Expert or skilled behaviors (for example, face recognition or sporting performance) are typically performed automatically and with little conscious awareness. Previous studies, in various domains of performance, have shown that activities immediately prior to a task demanding a learned skill can affect performance. In sport, describing the to-be-performed action is detrimental, whereas in face ...

Five minutes of processing the local features of a Navon letter causes a detriment in subsequent face-recognition performance (Macrae & Lewis, 2002). We hypothesize a perceptual after effect explanation of this effect in which face recognition is less accurate after adapting to high-spatial frequencies at high contrasts. Five experiments were conducted in which face-recognition performance was ...

In four experiments, we investigated how attention to local and global levels of hierarchical Navon figures affected the selection of diagnostic spatial scale information used in scene categorization. We explored this issue by asking observers to classify hybrid images (i.e., images that contain low spatial frequency (LSF) content of one image, and high spatial frequency (HSF) content from a se...

Amelioration of the rightward spatial attention bias in patients with hemispatial neglect following manipulations of non-spatial attention suggests that spatial attention and mechanisms related to the regulation of attention are interrelated. Studies in normal, healthy subjects have shown similar modulation in spatial bias following tonic and phasic changes in attention suggesting that this int...

Zhen-Dong Luo School of Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China; e-mail: [email protected] Jing Chen College of Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China; e-mail: jing [email protected] I.M. Navon School of Computational Science and Department of Mathematics, Florida State University, Dirac Sci. Lib. Bldg., #483, Tallahassee, FL 32306–4120, USA; e-mail: nav...