Priming global and local processing of composite faces: revisiting the processing-bias effect on face perception

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Visual Perception
• Neuroscience

Background:

• The composite-face illusion demonstrates challenges in face recognition when attending to one part.
• Navon stimuli are used to probe selective attention to global or local features.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how priming local or global processing affects face recognition.
• To determine if attention to global or local Navon stimuli influences the composite-face illusion.

Main Methods:

• Participants performed a Navon task, focusing on global or local features.
• Following the Navon task, participants identified upper halves of composite faces.
• Sensitivity to incongruence between face halves was measured.

Main Results:

• Global processing priming significantly increased sensitivity to face incongruence.
• Local processing priming did not affect sensitivity to face incongruence.
• Incongruence created a response bias, but this was not modulated by priming.

Conclusions:

• Global processing of Navon stimuli enhances holistic face processing.
• Selective attention to global features improves the ability to detect face inconsistencies.