title: Global-feature classification can be acquired more rapidly than local-feature classification in both humans and pigeons.
abstract: When humans process visual stimuli, global information often takes precedence over local information. In contrast, some recent studies have pointed to a local precedence effect in both pigeons and nonhuman primates. In the experiment reported here, we compared the speed of acquisition of two different categorizations of the same four geometric figures. One categorization was on the basis of a local feature, the other on the basis of a readily apparent global feature. For both humans and pigeons, the global-feature categorization was acquired more rapidly. This result reinforces the conclusion that local information does not always take precedence over global information in nonhuman animals.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Washington Singer Laboratories, University of Exeter, EX4 4QG, Exeter, UK. K.Goto@exeter.ac.uk
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Wills
authors.forename: Stephen E G
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Lea
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D002965:Classification; D010856:Columbidae / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008606:Mental Processes; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D013045:Species Specificity