Local and global level-priming occurs for hierarchical stimuli composed of outlined, but not filled-in, elements

When attention is directed to the local or global level of a hierarchical stimulus, attending to that same scale of information is subsequently facilitated. This effect is called level-priming, and in its pure form, it has been dissociated from stimulus- or response-repetition priming. In previous studies, pure level-priming has been demonstrated using hierarchical stimuli composed of alphanumeric forms consisting of lines. Here, we test whether pure level-priming extends to hierarchical configurations of generic geometric forms composed of elements that can be depicted either outlined or filled-in. Interestingly, whereas hierarchical stimuli composed of outlined elements benefited from pure level-priming, for both local and global targets, those composed of filled-in elements did not. The results are not readily attributable to differences in spatial frequency content, suggesting that forms composed of outlined and filled-in elements are treated differently by attention and/or priming mechanisms. Because our results present a surprising limit on attentional persistence to scale, we propose that other findings in the attention and priming literature be evaluated for their generalizability across a broad range of stimulus classes, including outlined and filled-in depictions.