Partial overlap between holistic processing of words and Gestalt line stimuli at an early perceptual stage

Abstract

A dual-route account of holistic processing has been proposed, which includes a stimulus-based and experience-based approach to holistic processing. The bottom-up route was suggested by the observation of holistic processing for novel Gestalt line patterns in the absence of expertise. For words, there is mainly evidence for a late, lexical, experience-based locus of holistic processing with scarce evidence for an early, stimulus-based locus. However, salient early Gestalt information (i.e., connectedness, closure, and continuity between parts) are important for letter and word identification. Thus, there might be an overlap at an early, perceptual processing stage, between Gestalt stimulus-based holistic processing and word holistic processing. In the task we used, words and Gestalt line patterns were superimposed, and we evaluated whether one class of stimuli was processed less holistically when an aligned other class pattern (processed holistically) was superimposed. There was some evidence supporting an early locus for the influence of word processing on Gestalt line patterns, but the interaction between the two stimuli was not reciprocal, which needs further clarification. When an aligned word (processed holistically) was overlaid on a line pattern, the line pattern was processed less holistically. However, when an aligned line pattern (processed holistically) was overlaid on a word, the word was not processed less holistically. This pattern might result from the higher cohesiveness of words and their automaticity and feedback from the lexicon.

Francisco Cruz

Doctoral Student

Francisco Cruz is a doctoral student in social psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, under the supervision of Prof. André Mata (University of Lisbon) and Prof. Tania Lombrozo (Princeton University). Currently, he is visiting Princeton University in research collaborator capacity. His project explores why people are sceptical of psychology as a science, as well as how to increase trust in psychological science. His research interests include lay beliefs about science (i.e., what people believe that science can or cannot explain and why), motivated beliefs in science (i.e., the contexts in which people are more prone to accepting scientific explanations), representation of social groups (i.e., how people integrate information to provide judgments on shared homogeneity vs. heterogeneity across group members), epistemic trespassing (i.e., when people provide judgments on domains beyond those in which they are experts), intuitive mind-body dualism (i.e., a natural tendency to see the world as split in material and immaterial portions), and face perception (i.e., features driving the advantage in recall for own- vs. other-race faces). He is a Student Affiliate at the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding, an Author at CogBites, and an Opinion Editor at Cruamente.