Abstract
Holistic processing was initially characterized as a unique hallmark of face perception but later was argued to be a marker of general perceptual expertise. More recently, evidence for holistic processing—measured by interference from task-irrelevant parts—was obtained in novices, raising questions for its usefulness as a test of expertise. Indeed, recent studies use the same task to make opposite claims: One group of researchers found more interference in novices than experts for Chinese characters, while another found more interference in experts than novices with objects. Offering a resolution to this paradox, our work on the perception of musical notation suggests that expert and novice interference effects represent two ends of a continuum: Interference is initially strategic and contextual but becomes more automatic as holistic processing develops with the acquisition of perceptual expertise.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.