Global precedence effects account for individual differences in taxonomic and thematic relations recognition performance.

Abstract

This study examined whether individuals with higher levels of global precedence recognized thematic relations faster and exhibited a stronger preference for them. In Study 1, the Global-Local Precedence Index was calculated based on results from the Navon task to reflect the degree of individual global precedence. Preferences for thematic or taxonomic relations and recognition speed were measured using the forced-choice triad task and the similarity-matching task, respectively. The results showed that participants with a higher Global-Local Precedence Index had a higher proportion of thematic choices in the forced-choice triad task and identified thematically similar options faster in the similarity-matching task. In Study 2, we replaced the stimulus set of the forced-choice triad task with a larger and more diverse set of stimuli and replaced the similarity-matching task (a word-based task) with a semantic priming task (a picture-based task). The results still showed that participants with a higher Global-Local Precedence Index chose thematic options more frequently in the forced-choice triad task and responded faster to correctly judge whether the orientation of Gabor patches was the same or different after thematic priming. The findings indicate that individuals with higher global precedence recognize thematic relations faster and show a stronger preference for them.