Navon figure

Larger shape built out of smaller, distinct shapes. e.g a large "N" drawn in small "a"s

A Navon figure is made of a larger recognisable shape, such as a letter, composed of copies of a smaller different shape. Navon figures are used in tests of visual neglect.^[1] David Navon's research demonstrated that global features are perceived more quickly than local features.^[2] Jules Davidoff also performed research, but in a remote culture, finding opposite results; the participants more readily identified the local features.^[3] Patients with simultanagnosia have difficulty identifying global features, and when presented with a Navon figure will identify only the local features.^[4] A 2010 study comparing global-local processing in different races,^[5] found that East Asians demonstrated significantly stronger global processing than Caucasians.

Example

A letter T (global) composed of repeat copies of the letter S (local).

 SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
 SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
 SS        SSSSS        SS
           SSSSS
           SSSSS
           SSSSS
           SSSSS
           SSSSS
           SSSSS
          SSSSSSS
       SSSSSSSSSSSSS

The Navon effect

Reading Navon figures has been found to affect a range of tasks. It has been shown that just 5 minutes reading out the small letters of Navon figures has a detrimental effect on face recognition.^[6]^[7] The size of the Navon effect has been found to be influenced by the properties of the image.^[8] The effect is short lived (lasting less than a couple of minutes).^[9]

The Navon effects has also been found in other tasks such as golf putting where reading the small Navon letters leads to poorer putting performance.^[10]

References

^ Assessing Attention in Unilateral Neglect^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Navon, 1977 cited in (1)
^ Davidoff, J.; E. Fonteneau; J. Fagot (Sep 2008). "Local and global processing: Observations from a remote culture". Cognition. 108 (3): 702–709. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.06.004. PMID 18662813. S2CID 23152945.
^ Simultanagnosia, 2009
^ McKone, E.; Davies, A.A.; Fernando, D.; Aalders, R.; Leung, H.; Wickramariyaratne, T.; Platow, M.J. (July 2010). "Asia has the global advantage: Race and visual attention". Vision Research. 50 (16): 1540–1549. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2010.05.010. PMID 20488198.
^ Macrae, C. N.; Lewis, H. L. (2002). "Do I know you? Processing orientation and face recognition". Psychological Science. 13 (2): 194–196. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00436. PMID 11934008. S2CID 32308973.
^ Perfect, Timothy J. (2003-10-01). "Local processing bias impairs lineup performance". Psychological Reports. 93 (2): 393–394. doi:10.2466/pr0.2003.93.2.393. ISSN 0033-2941. PMID 14650660. S2CID 30376697.
^ Perfect, Timothy J.; Weston, Nicola J.; Dennis, Ian; Snell, Amelia (2008-10-01). "The effects of precedence on Navon-induced processing bias in face recognition". The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 61 (10): 1479–1486. doi:10.1080/17470210802034678. ISSN 1747-0218. PMID 18609403. S2CID 42351390.
^ Hills, Peter J.; Lewis, Michael B. (2007-04-01). "Temporal limitation of navon effect on face recognition". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 104 (2): 501–509. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.606.8985. doi:10.2466/pms.104.2.501-509. ISSN 0031-5125. PMID 17566440. S2CID 839934.
^ Lewis, Michael B.; Dawkins, Gemma (2014-08-08). "Local Navon letter processing affects skilled behavior: A golf-putting experiment" (PDF). Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 22 (2): 420–428. doi:10.3758/s13423-014-0702-6. ISSN 1069-9384. PMID 25102927. S2CID 14587095.

Mevorach, Carmel; Humphreys, Glyn W.; Shalev, Lilach (2006). "Opposite biases in salience-based selection for the left and right posterior parietal cortex". Nature Neuroscience. 9 (6): 740–742. doi:10.1038/nn1709. PMID 16699505. S2CID 39992249.
Navon, David (1977). "Forest before trees: The precedence of global features in visual perception". Cognitive Psychology. 9 (3): 353–383. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(77)90012-3. S2CID 14119789.