Holistic thinkers process divided-attention tasks faster: from the global/local perspective

Abstract

Does cognitive style have influence functions? In this study, we build on the existing literature (e.g., McKone et al., 2010; Hakim et al., 2016) in providing answers to the question. We anticipated that the type of attitude tendency (i.e., holistic or analytic, Nisbett et al., 2001) is somehow related to the perceptual processing ability applied in the Navon task (Navon, 1977). By pre-screening for holistic and analytic thinkers from 289 participants, we adapted a global-local task. We manipulated the density of local targets to explore a more detailed discrepancy between the local-global perceptual systems of people with different cognitive styles. We found that holistic thinkers responded faster (at the same level of accuracy) on both global and local tasks. These data were interpreted to suggest that holistic thinkers might better handle divided-attention tasks than analytic thinkers.