Navon processing and verbalisation: A holistic/featural distinction

Abstract

Three experiments compared face recognition performance following global and local Navon processing and verbalisation, and explored the extent to which the effects of these tasks were influenced by encoding processes. Experiment 1 used the Navon letter task at encoding, whereas Experiments 2 and 3 used personality and physical feature judgements to induce holistic and featural encoding. Accuracy and response latencies were measured for stimuli of own- and other-race faces. Results showed that both the Navon and verbal overshadowing effects were not influenced by the Navon encoding task; however, the judgement task used in Experiments 2 and 3 eliminated all impairment caused by local processing but not by providing a verbal description. These results are discussed with regards to the holistic and featural explanations of Navon processing and verbalisation effects.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by sponsorship from the Economic and Social Research Council.