A decisional component of holistic encoding.

Full Abstract

It has been proposed (see, specifically, M. J. Farah, K. D. Wilson, M. Drain, & J. N. Tanaka, 1998) that human faces are used in cognition as undifferentiated wholes. General recognition theory (GRT; F. G. Ashby & J. T. Townsend, 1986) is used to represent hypotheses regarding the possible sources for the behavioral evidence supporting holistic representation. Specifically, it is suggested that holism can be understood in terms of violations of informational independence, informational separability, or decisional separability, as these constructs are defined in GRT. Stimuli were presented upright, inverted, and in an encoding task that emphasized the meaningful nature of the stimuli. Patterns of performance (recognition hit rates) were consistent with prior studies. However, there were only a handful of violations of informational separability. Instead, consistent violations of decisional separability suggested a decisional basis for holistic effects.

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Author information

Author/s: Wenger, Michael J (MJ); Ingvalson, Erin M (EM);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA. mwenger1(-atsign-)nd.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition (J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Sep; vol 28 (issue 5) : pp 872-92

Dates: Created 2002/09/10; Completed 2003/03/20; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12219796, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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