Isolated Configuration: Holistic Processing Beyond the Realm of Faces

Holistic processing of visual stimuli has long been regarded as unique to faces, or otherwise extended to other object categories given sufficient expertise. We designed novel abstract stimuli that are recognizable strictly by configural information, and matched control stimuli that require the use of only featural information. We then tested four classic markers of holistic perception: inversion, misalignment, part-whole, and composite effects. We found that second-order configuration stimuli elicited robust holistic effects, while featural stimuli do not, showing that such effects emerge specifically when recognition depends on configural information, but not when it relies on featural cues. We further observed that first-order configuration stimuli were also sufficient to induce holistic effects, indicating that holistic processing can emerge from multiple levels of configural information. We also found a significant correlation between individual differences in face recognition ability and holistic processing effects with the second-order configuration stimuli, but not with the first order configuration stimuli, nor the featural stimuli. Lastly, convolutional neural networks trained on the same stimuli reproduced these patterns, strengthening the interpretation that holistic processing arises when configural information must be used to recognize a stimulus. Together, these findings demonstrate that holistic processing is fundamentally rooted in the representation of spatial configuration, with second-order relations providing the critical link to face recognition ability.