Fast and careless or careful and slow? Apparent holistic processing in XXXX is explained by speed-accuracy trade-offs.

@entity1 @entity717
UNASSIGNED: A major debate in the mental-rotation literature concerns the question of whether objects are represented holistically during rotation. Effects of object complexity on rotational speed are considered strong evidence against such holistic representations. In Experiment 1, such an effect of object complexity was markedly present. A closer look on individual performance patterns, however, revealed that only some @entity1 showed this effect. For others, rotational speed was independent of object complexity. The assumption that these fast-rotating @entity1 use a holistic representation that equally well holds simple and complex objects would explain these results. Taking error rates into account disproved this explanation: Fast @entity1 simply committed more errors in those conditions for which careful @entity1 invested more rotation time. Whether this speed-accuracy trade-off is a stable personality trait or a somewhat flexible strategic choice was examined in Experiments 2 and 3. In Experiment 2, @entity1 received monetary incentives that encouraged them to minimize errors. In line with a certain degree of flexible strategic control over speed-accuracy trade-offs, a large majority of @entity1 showed effects of object complexity on rotational speed. When, in contrast, time pressure was induced in Experiment 3, error rates increased considerably and most @entity1 ' rotational speed became independent of object complexity. Our results indicate that all our @entity1 performed @entity717 on a nonholistic representation and that apparent holistic processing strategies in @entity717 (and potentially also in other spatial tasks) might actually be speed-accuracy trade-offs in disguise. (PsycINFO Database Record
