May J G, Gutierrez C, Harsin C A
Department of Psychology, University of New Orleans, LA 70148, USA.
Int J Neurosci. 1995;80(1-4):237-45. doi: 10.3109/00207459508986102.
The global precedence effect refers to the finding that global aspects of a scene are processed more rapidly than local detail in the scene. In experiments with large Hs and Ss (global stimuli) made up of small Hs and Ss (local stimuli), choice reaction time (RT) to the global letters is shorter than RT to the local letters (global precedence effect). In addition, RT for local letters is shorter when the local letters are the same as the global letter (consistency effect). We sought to determine the time course of the global precedence and consistency effects by delaying the global information relative to the local information. In Experiment I, the middle cross-bar of the global letter (S or H) was presented followed by the rest of the global letter at delays of 0, 48, 80, 160, 320 and 640 ms. The results indicated that the global precedence effect was obtained at delays < 48 ms and local precedence effects are obtained at delays > 80 ms. Consistency effects were found in the absence of global precedence effects, but only at delays of 48 and 80 ms. Experiment II was a replication with delays of 16, 32, 48, 64, 80, and 96 ms. The results of this experiment were in agreement with those of Experiment I. These findings offer support for the notion that the consistency effect is mediated by a higher level process than is the global precedence effect.
视觉场景的全局特征比局部细节能被更快地处理。在由小H和小S（局部刺激）组成大H和大S（全局刺激）的实验中，对全局字母的选择反应时（RT）比对局部字母的反应时短（全局优先效应）。此外，当局部字母与全局字母相同时，局部字母的反应时更短（一致性效应）。我们试图通过相对于局部信息延迟全局信息来确定全局优先效应和一致性效应的时间进程。在实验I中，呈现全局字母（S或H）的中间横杆，随后在延迟0、48、80、160、320和640毫秒时呈现全局字母的其余部分。结果表明，在延迟<48毫秒时获得全局优先效应，在延迟>80毫秒时获得局部优先效应。在没有全局优先效应的情况下发现了一致性效应，但仅在延迟48和80毫秒时出现。实验II是在延迟16、32、48、64、80和96毫秒时的重复实验。该实验结果与实验I的结果一致。这些发现支持了这样一种观点，即一致性效应是由比全局优先效应更高层次的过程介导的。
