The Effect of Cognitive Processing Types on Visual Attention

Abstract

The current study aimed at investigating the effect of processing style "analytic/ holistic" on visual attention using a demanding task. The study was applied to 106 female students from different specialisations and levels at King Suad University. The sample were assigned a task that was a visual search which required participants to direct their attention to find a target presented in the real world photographs. 2 x 3 mixed design ANOVA showed that individuals who tend to process information more analytically were faster at detecting the target regardless of its position in the scene. This result suggests that Analytic- Holistic cognitive processing can influence the allocation of visual attention when individuals inspect visual environment surrounding them.