Global-Local Interference Modulated by Communication Between the Hemispheres

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. General Vol. 128; no. 3; pp. 283 - 308
• Main Authors: Weissman, Daniel H, Banich, Marie T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-09-1999
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Attention - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition & reasoning; Dominance, Cerebral - physiology; Female; Functional Laterality; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Interference (Learning); Interhemispheric Interaction; Lateral Dominance; Male; Mental Processes - physiology; Nerve Net - physiology; Neurology; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time; Selective Attention; Stimulus Ambiguity; Stroop Effect; Human; Hemispheric specialization; Central nervous system; Interference; Cognition; Hierarchical stimulus; Experimental study; Selective attention; Vision; Global local processing; Perception; Laterality; Interhemispheric transfer; Visual attention; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 0096-3445; 1939-2222
• DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.128.3.283

Three experiments examined whether interhemispheric interaction
modulates selective attention in a same-different version of
D. Navon's
(1977)
global-local paradigm. In Experiments 1
and 2, interhemispheric interaction reduced interstimulus interference
produced when two stimuli matched at a preassigned level
(e.g., local) but differed at the irrelevant
level (e.g., global). This effect was
greater for stimuli made of a few large elements than for those made of many
small elements. Experiment 3 demonstrated that (a) the ability
of interhemispheric interaction to reduce interstimulus interference is not
constrained by hemispheric differences for global and local processing and
(b) interhemispheric interaction does not strongly modulate
intrastimulus interference produced when the forms at the preassigned
(e.g., local) and irrelevant
(e.g., global) levels differ within an individual
stimulus. These findings indicate that interaction between the
hemispheres is a neural mechanism that may aid selective attention.