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

Abstract

We used the composite-face illusion and Navon-stimuli to determine the consequences of priming local or global processing on face recognition. The composite-face illusion is observed in face-matching tasks and reflects the difficulty to ignore one half (e.g., bottom) of a face when the two aligned halves are incongruent. In each trial participants first responded to the global or local level of two Navon-stimuli and then matched the upper halves of two face-composites presented sequentially. Global processing of Navon-stimuli increased the illusion compared to local processing, as evidenced by larger reduction in sensitivity in the incongruent relative to congruent face-composites. Importantly, although incongruence induced a bias towards “Different” responses overall, this bias was not modulated by priming. We conclude that the level of processing the prime influenced the processing of composite-faces such that global processing of Navon-stimuli augmented holistic processing of the faces relative to local processing.

This study was funded by NIMH grant R01 MH 64458 to Lynn Robertson and Shlomo Bentin. Zaifeng Gao was partially supported by the Lady Davis Fellowship.