Navon-induced processing biases fail to affect the recognition of whole faces and isolated facial features. Issue 6 (18th August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Estudillo, Alejandro J.; Zheng, Bryan Leong Qi; Wong, Hoo Keat
• Is Part Of: Journal of cognitive psychology. Volume 34:Issue 6(2022)
• Page Start: 744
• Page End: 754
• Publication Date: 2022-08-18
• Subjects: Navon stimuli -- face recognition -- holistic processing -- featural processing; Cognitive psychology -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2022.2105341
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2044-5911

Abstract

ABSTRACT : According to the processing bias account, global Navon-induced processing primes the adoption of a holistic strategy whereas local Navon-induced processing triggers featural processing. As faces are recognised at a holistic level, global Navon-induced processing would increase recognition accuracy of whole faces. In contrast, local Navon-induced processing would enhance the recognition of individual facial features. In two experiments we explored this account using the part/whole task. Observers were asked to recognise facial features presented in isolation or embedded into whole faces, after global or local Navon-induced processing. In both experiments, results showed a whole-over-part advantage whereby facial features were recognised more accurately in the context of the whole face than in isolation. However, Navon-induced processing failed to modulate this effect as well as the magnitude of holistic-featural face processing. These results cast doubts on the reliability of Navon processing to prime the adoption of a particular processing style for face identification.