Holistic processing as a hallmark of perceptual expertise for nonface categories including Chinese characters

Abstract

Holistic processing has been associated with perceptual expertise in different domains involving faces, cars, fingerprints, musical notes, English words, etc. Curiously Chinese characters are regarded as an exception, as indicated by reduced holistic processing found for experts with the Chinese writing system as compared with novices. We revisit the issue and examine one type of holistic processing, the obligatory attention to all parts of an object, using the composite paradigm from face perception literature. Chinese readers (experts) and non-Chinese readers (novices) matched the target halves of two characters while ignoring the irrelevant halves. We introduced differential response deadlines for experts and novices in order to match their performance level and to avoid ceiling performance for experts. Both experts and novices showed holistic processing, irrespective of the character structure (left-right or top-bottom) or presentation sequence (sequential or simultaneous matching). Experts' holistic processing also showed some sensitivity to the amount of experience with the characters, as it was larger for characters than noncharacters in some situations. Novices, however, did not show a systematic difference, suggesting that their effects were more related to their inefficient decomposition of a novel, complex pattern into parts. The current results, together with other recent findings of holistic processing for English words and musical notes, indicate that the development of holistic processing is not restricted to faces and objects. Instead it may be a general marker of expertise across a wider domain of visual discrimination than previously thought, including alphabetic and nonalphabetic writing systems.

The composite face illusion

“…Consistent with this domain-general account, composite effects obtained using the complete design have been reported for non-face objects of expertise encountered naturally, including cars (Bukach, Phillips, & Gauthier, 2010;Gauthier, Curran, Curby, & Collins, 2003), words (A. C. Wong et al, 2011), Chinese characters (A. C. Wong et al, 2012), and chess boards (Boggan, Bartlett, & Krawczyk, 2012). Similar composite effects have been reported with synthetic non-face objects, including 'Greebles' (Gauthier & Tarr, 2002;Gauthier, Williams, Tarr, & Tanaka, 1998) and 'Ziggerins' (A. C. Wong et al, 2009), where expertise is acquired through lab-based training.…”

Human Perception of Visual Realism for Photo and Computer-Generated Face Images

“…Other research suggests a reduced role of some kinds of information for nonface objects [Gauther and Tann 1997;Wong et al 2012a;Tan and Poggio 2013]. We predict that configural information such as the distances between object parts may be relatively less important for realism judgments of nonface objects as compared to realism judgments of faces.…”

“…Holistic processing may be a general marker of expertise across a wide domain of visual discrimination [Wong et al 2012a]. In neuroscience, some experimental evidence supports the idea that face perception shares brain areas with object perception [Moscovitch et al 1997;Rossion et al 2002;Xu 2005;McKeeff et al 2010;Rossion et al 2012;Goffaux et al 2013] and that the functional overlap between face and object perception is increased by expertise [McKeeff et al 2010].…”

On the facilitative effects of face motion on face recognition and its development

“…Part-based face processing demonstrates the tendency to process facial information individually, in a feature-by-feature manner. Studies have shown that normally-developed individuals process faces and face-like stimuli holistically (Young et al, 1987; Tanaka and Farah, 1993; Moscovitch et al, 1997; Tanaka et al, 1998; Maurer et al, 2002; Le Grand et al, 2004; Michel et al, 2006; Schwarzer et al, 2007; Richler et al, 2008, 2011a; Wang et al, 2012; Wong et al, 2012). Holistic face processing is primary for upright human face stimuli, but its use is greatly reduced for processing objects, inverted faces, or upright faces from another ethnic background (Michel et al, 2006; McKone et al, 2007, 2013; McKone, 2008).…”