Perceptual Expertise as a Shift From Strategic Interference to Automatic Holistic Processing

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.