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Developing the Leuven Embedded Figures Test (L -EFT): testing the stimulus features that influence embedding

de-Wit, L; Huygelier, H; Van der Hallen, R; Chamberlain, R; Wagemans, J; (2017) Developing the Leuven Embedded Figures Test (L -EFT): testing the stimulus features that influence embedding. PeerJ , 5 , Article e2862. 10.7717/peerj.2862. Green open access

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Abstract

Background The Embedded Figures Test (EFT, developed by Witkin and colleagues (1971)) has been used extensively in research on individual differences, particularly in the study of autism spectrum disorder. The EFT was originally conceptualized as a measure of field (in)dependence, but in recent years performance on the EFT has been interpreted as a measure of local versus global perceptual style. Although many have used the EFT to measure perceptual style, relatively few have focused on understanding the stimulus features that cause a shape to become embedded. The primary aim of this work was to investigate the relation between the strength of embedding and perceptual grouping on a group level. Method New embedded figure stimuli (both targets and contexts) were developed in which stimulus features that may influence perceptual grouping were explicitly manipulated. The symmetry, closure and complexity of the target shape were manipulated as well as its good continuation by varying the number of lines from the target that continued into the context. We evaluated the effect of these four stimulus features on target detection in a new embedded figures task (Leuven Embedded Figures Test, L-EFT) in a group of undergraduate psychology students. The results were then replicated in a second experiment using a slightly different version of the task. Results Stimulus features that influence perceptual grouping, especially good continuation and symmetry, clearly affected performance (lower accuracy, slower response times) on the L-EFT. Closure did not yield results in line with our predictions. Discussion These results show that some stimulus features, which are known to affect perceptual grouping, also influence how effectively a stimulus becomes embedded in different contexts. Whether these results imply that the EFT measures individual differences in perceptual grouping ability must be further investigated.

Type: Article
Title: Developing the Leuven Embedded Figures Test (L -EFT): testing the stimulus features that influence embedding
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.2862
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2862
Language: English
Additional information: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords: Science & Technology, Multidisciplinary Sciences, Science & Technology - Other Topics, Perceptual organization, Embedded figures, Field dependence, Perceptual style, Autism, Local global perception, Perceptual grouping, Good continuation, Gestalt, GOOD CONTINUATION, CLOSURE, AUTISM, PERCEPTION, SHAPE
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1568245
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