Global precedence: The effect of exposure duration.

Abstract

The interference pattern between the global and local aspects of a form is affected by exposure duration. Stimuli consisting of large letters constructed from small letters were presented for 10, 40 or 100 ms, and subjects were required to identify either the large letters or the small letters. At the 10 ms exposure duration, only unidirectional or global to local interference was observed. This finding is consistent wiht Navon''s global precedence hypothesis. At the longer exposure durations equivalent global to local and local to global interference patterns were observed. These results limit the generality of any global precedence hypothesis, either perceptual or attentional, to conditions where there are large discrepancies in the quality of the local and global information.