Differential processing of local and global visual features is well established. Global precedence effects, differences in event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited when attention is focused on local versus global levels, and hemispheric specialization for local and global features all indicate that relative scale of detail is an important distinction in visual processing. Observing analogous differential processing of local and global auditory information would suggest that scale of detail is a general organizational principle of the brain. However, to date the research on auditory local and global processing has primarily focused on music perception or on the perceptual analysis of relatively higher and lower frequencies. The study described here suggests that temporal aspects of auditory stimuli better capture the local-global distinction. By combining short (40 ms) frequency modulated tones in series to create global auditory patterns (500 ms), we independently varied whether pitch increased or decreased over short time spans (local) and longer time spans (global). Accuracy and reaction time measures revealed better performance for global judgments and asymmetric interference that were modulated by amount of pitch change. ERPs recorded while participants listened to identical sounds and indicated the direction of pitch change at the local or global levels provided evidence for differential processing similar to that found in ERP studies employing hierarchical visual stimuli. ERP measures failed to provide evidence for lateralization of local and global auditory perception, but differences in distributions suggest preferential processing in more ventral and dorsal areas respectively. Keywords selective attention; event-related potential; temporal; congruency; lateralization; pitch Visual perception can vary drastically across different spatial scales. A compelling demonstration of how scale affects visual analysis is provided by the tension between local and global elements in portraits by the artist Chuck Close. For many of his pictures, face recognition only occurs when attention is focused on low spatial frequency information at the global level. Data from various methodologies support the view that visual information at relatively small and large spatial scales is differentially processed in the human brain. It has also been suggested that this local-global distinction may define a general organizational principle (Ivry & Robertson, 1998;Sergent, 1982). However, a lack of robust evidence for Corresponding Author: Lisa D. Sanders, lsanders@psych.umass.edu, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003, (413) 545 -5962. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the p...