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.