Link between fluid/crystallized intelligence and global/local visual abilities across adulthood.

• Visual processing was investigated using three-level stimuli search task. • Older adults with higher fluid intelligence showed higher global advantage. • Better visual processing was linked to higher local and global efficiencies. • There was no link between intelligence and visual processing in younger adults. Human visual processing involves the extraction of both global and local information from a visual stimulus. Such processing may be related to cognitive abilities, which is likely going to change over time as we age. We aimed to investigate the impact of healthy aging on the association between visual global vs local processing and intelligence. In this context, we collected behavioral data during a visual search task in 103 adults (50 younger/53 older). We extracted three metrics reflecting global advantage (faster global than local processing), and visual interference in detecting either local or global features (based on interfering visual distractors). We found that older, but not younger, adults with higher levels of fluid and crystallized intelligence showed stronger signs of global advantage and interference effects during local processing, respectively. The present findings also provide promising clues regarding how participants consider and process their visual world in healthy aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]