A Navon figure is made of a larger recognisable shape, such as a letter, composed of copies of a smaller different shape. Navon figures are used in tests of visual neglect.[1] David Navon's research demonstrated that global features are perceived more quickly than local features.[2] Jules Davidoff also performed research, but in a remote culture, finding opposite results; the participants more readily identified the local features.[3] Patients with simultanagnosia have difficulty identifying global features, and when presented with a Navon figure will identify only the local features.[4] In a recent study comparing global-local processing in different races,[5] it was found that East Asians demonstrated significantly stronger global processing than Caucasians.
Example
A letter T (global) composed of repeat copies of the letter S (local).
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
SS SSSSS SS
SSSSS
SSSSS
SSSSS
SSSSS
SSSSS
SSSSS
SSSSSSS
SSSSSSSSSSSSS
Reading Navon figures has been found to affect a range of tasks. It has been shown that just 5 minutes reading out the small letters of Navon figures has a detrimental effect on face recognition.[6][7] The size of the Navon effect has been found to be influenced by the properties of the image.[8] The effect is short lived (lasting less than a couple of minutes).[9]
The Navon effects has also been found in other tasks such as golf putting where reading the small Navon letters leads to poorer putting performance.
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