Most visual scenes contain information at different spatial scales, including the local and global, or the detail and gist. Global processes have become increasingly implicated in research examining summary statistical perception, initially as the output of ensemble coding, and more recently as a gating mechanism for selecting which information is included in the averaging process itself. Yet local and global processing are known to be rapidly integrated by the visual system, and it is plausible that global-level information, like spatial organization, may be included as an input during ensemble coding. We tested this hypothesis using an ensemble shape-perception task in which observers evaluated the mean aspect ratios of sets of ellipses. In addition to varying the aspect ratios of the individual shapes, we independently varied the spatial arrangements of the sets so that they had either flat or tall organizations at the global level. We found that observers made precise summary judgments about the average aspect ratios of the sets by integrating information from multiple shapes. More importantly, global flat and tall organizations were incorporated into ensemble judgments about the sets; summary judgments were biased in the directions of the global spatial arrangements on each trial. This global-to-local integration even occurred when the global organizations were masked. Our results demonstrate that the process of summary representation can include information from both the local and global scales. The gist is not just an output of ensemble representation – it can be included as an input to the mechanism itself.

大多数视觉场景包含不同空间范围的信息，包括局部和全局信息，或细节和要点。全局过程已越来越多地牵涉到研究汇总统计感知的研究中，最初是作为整体编码的输出，最近是作为选通机制，用于选择将哪些信息包括在平均过程本身中。然而，已知局部和全局处理将被视觉系统迅速集成，并且可能有可能在集成编码期间将诸如空间组织之类的全局信息作为输入包括在内。我们使用整体形状感知任务测试了这个假设，其中观察者评估了椭圆集的平均纵横比。除了更改各个形状的长宽比之外，我们独立地改变了场景的空间安排，以使它们在全球范围内拥有扁平或高大的组织。我们发现观察者通过整合来自多种形状的信息，对集合的平均纵横比做出了精确的汇总判断。更重要的是，将全球性扁平组织和高层组织纳入了对场景的整体判断。在每个试验中，总结性判断偏向于全局空间排列的方向。这种全球到本地的整合甚至发生在全球组织被掩盖的时候。我们的结果表明，摘要表示的过程可以包括来自本地和全球范围的信息。要点不仅是整体表示的输出，还可以作为机制本身的输入。